Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Gamma Ray
Label: Noise Records
Release: 1990
Rating: 3/5
One of the most respected German guitarists to this day, Kai Hansen, left Helloween at exactly the right time, as if he’d sensed how rough things would get for the pumpkins down the road. He joined forces with his longtime friend, the German Rob Halford, or Ralf Scheppers to his mates. Uwe Wessel handled the bass, Mathias Burchardt the drums. Gamma Ray were born. The debut saw the light of day in late winter 1990. Back then it was all the rage to play fast and “hard”. Bands practically raced each other to see who’d be faster. And “Heading For Tomorrow” really was an extremely fast take on epic heavy metal of the classic Germanic school, with its roots in Judas Priest riffing. The brilliant, untamed composer Hansen on guitar and the explosive Scheppers together staged a proper metal incineration, because they clicked perfectly. Power and speed fused harmoniously and amped up, heading toward new musical dimensions!
Compared to Helloween and their second “Keeper”, the Gamma Ray debut was much more alive, bursting with way more energy, largely thanks to the production. In a way it called the Helloween debut back to life. Still, the Gamma Ray debut can’t possibly match the one-of-a-kind raw, angry, wildly sped-up Helloween debut “Walls Of Jericho”, which, interestingly, is at heart a complete Hansen record. That kind of rage and aggression never came back in Gamma Ray later. Even before “Walls Of Jericho”, Kai invited Ralf into the band, but as a die-hard Judas Priest devotee he somehow couldn’t identify with the rawer, sped-up Iron Maiden version and the strong influences of early American underground speed metal in Helloween’s music, so he tried his luck back then with the Priest-style Tyran Pace.
The filigree precision of Kai’s picking, single-string shredding along the transitions, and wild solos, wonderfully dosed with a rainbow of embellishments within the fast, hugely energetic riffing of the Judas Priest legacy, were tailor-made for Ralf. The singer added an extra dose of energy with his performance. If the German Dickinson or M. Kiske sounded clean and smooth in the high passages with Helloween, Ralf sounded even higher, more energetic and more aggressive, all while conjuring the feeling that he sang with unbelievable ease, since he kept the power and aggression of his vocals up as if it were a joke even in the toughest stretches of his singing.
The Priest-flavored “Space Eater”, the mischievous, playful “Money” with its crossfire of Kai’s and Ralf’s vocals, “Hold Your Ground” with a middle section whose rhythm strongly recalls Purple’s “Mandrake’s Root”, or the closing title track, a fourteen-minute-plus treat, all carry a wide palette of variety in the songs, which keeps the dynamics at an excellent level throughout. Classic riff-driven bulldozing stands in balance with the complexity of motifs flowing into one another in the songs. The punch and fluidity of the record were thus preserved. And this was only the beginning of the story.
Lineup
Ralf Scheppers – vocals
Kai Hansen – guitar
Uwe Wessel – bass guitar
Mathias Burchardt – drums
Production
Kai Hansen
Tracklist
1.Welcome [instrumental] (1:00)
2.Lust for Life (5:01)
3.Heaven Can Wait (4:23)
4.Space Eater (4:34)
5.Money (3:40)
6.The Silence (6:20)
7.Hold Your Ground (4:48)
8.Free Time (5:01)
9.Heading for Tomorrow (14:30)
10.Look at Yourself (4:42)
BONUS TRACKS ON THE 2002 REMASTERED EDITION:
11. Mr. Outlaw
12. Lonesome Stranger
13. Sail On
