Artist: Gamma Ray
Label: SPV Records
Released: 2008
Running time: 107:00
Rating: 4/5
This double live disc landed in my hands totally by accident. At the Gamma Ray gig in Zagreb on 24.02.2010. It came out on SPV Records, though Gamma Ray are now safely tucked away at Ear Music Records. Anyway, at their official merch stand on the “To The Metal” tour they’re selling promo material, even if it costs a measly 50.00HRK, which comes to somewhere between 6.00€ and 7.00€, but still. Have you ever seen anyone selling promo material that has screaming letters printed on it, backed up with exclamation marks, saying that selling it is prohibited and the CD is strictly for promotional use? If you have, then somebody else was cheating besides our power metal “wheezers” from Hamburg.
Anyway, better late than never! The album “Hell Yeah!!! The Awesome Foursome” is a double live disc that Gamma Ray put out amid great excitement, after years of holding out they finally landed their ship on the North American continent, where they played their first real headline tour. The tour was held under the banner of the new album “Majestic” (2005), and the band tweaked the set list and gave that record a little attention with two excellent tracks: Fight (a mid-tempo number with a verse melody lifted from the “Somewhwre Out In Space” era and harmonies in thirds over riffs in the style of classic Helloween – the chorus) and the much more bloodthirsty, “Running Wild-ish” Blood Religion, with superb multi-part solos showing off the unique skill of that indispensable guitar dialogue between the Hansen/Richter duo, in the spirit of the classic Maiden approach.
We can say this is Gamma Ray’s first classic live album. The single-disc “Alive ’95” was, with its mediocrity, more of a forced product than something born from any real need to present their own music properly on stage, while the otherwise brilliant “Skeletons In The Closet” is a special case as far as the set list goes, since it covers songs that Gamma Ray rarely play live. With “Hell Yeah!!! The Awesome Foursome”, Gamma Ray finally release an album that put a real concert tour dedicated to promoting a record on tape. Despite the silly title!
The material covers a cross-section of the whole discography across all the Gamma Ray albums, except for “Insanity And Genious”, which, let’s be honest, you don’t really miss. There are two unforgettable sweeties here: the ballad-leaning metal anthem The Silence from the debut “Heading For Tomorrow, as well as DreamHealer from the album “Sigh No More” (1991), and right behind them is the band’s decision to spice up the show with a laid-back, acoustic, shorter Fairytale (“Land Of The Free”, 1995), which makes an excellent intro to the aforementioned classic The Silence. The keyboards are played by Axel Mackenrott of Masterplan.
Heart Of The Unicorn (“No World Order!”, 2001) is a track that highlights the fact that Kai has lost some power in his voice, compared with the version of this classic captured on “Skeletons In The Closet” (2003). Without a doubt one of the hardest songs vocally, it doesn’t leave Kai’s vocal cords untouched, and when you listen to the insane heights that the legendary guitar virtuoso and father of “Euro-power” metal struggles to conquer, you end up completely hoarse yourself. Hats off!
The album “Hell Yeah!!! The Awesome Foursome” is a live record from an incredibly tight band, impressive in the high quality of its individual virtuoso fireworks. That goes especially for the dialogue of fiery solos, which we can enjoy endlessly when Kai Hansen and Henjo Richter are with us. The two guitarists string together top-notch communication within harmonies split into thirds with feather-light ease, and they pull ideas out of their sleeves too, fertilizing the transitional parts of the live versions of Gamma Ray classics with sparkling guitar ornaments. Of course the guys treat themselves to some fun when they tackle Heavy Metal Universe and deliberately stretch it out, suddenly switch over to the riff from the Judas Priest classic You’ve Got Another Thing Coming, and also let us know they’re no strangers to the album “Made In Japan” and the song Woman From Tokyo, by Deep Purple, the forefathers of modern metal. In short, a heaping dose of fun, which the incorrigible fan of the zany adventures of Jake Racman and Uncle Scrooge, who is also the band’s boss, gets up to with his buddies on stage. Daniel Zimmermann is once again devastating behind the drum fortress, in his element of unbridled speed, precision and power, and Dirk Shlächter, as always, tears and digs wildly at his bass guitar.
With this album, Gamma Ray have once again proven that in a live setting, within the bounds of the “Euro-power” metal genre, you don’t want to mess with them. It’s hard to even get close to them. Especially later on, when we stroll through the second disc and the band starts reeling off the brilliant “Somewhere Out In Space” classics and rounds off the show with the obligatory Rebbelion In A Dream Land and Man On A Mission.
This is an album that’s indispensable in the collection of every follower of the band. Why did it take so long to see the light of day? Supposedly they made a few basic mistakes during recording right at the site of the original sin – Montreal. The raw recordings had to go under a special microscope for further studio work, where they mainly fixed the mix. Anyway, when you put the thing on in your player, the authenticity of the real live Gamma Ray is with you in an instant. Because the release dragged on so long, Gamma Ray rewarded the faithful fans’ wait by including four extra tracks from shows in the autumn and winter (2007/2008), when Gamma Ray were the support act for Helloween. So those recordings already date from the next tour, on which the band promoted the album “Land Of The Free pt. II” (2007). All four songs are taken from that album. Maybe a less daring move in terms of representing the bulk of that album’s songs, but on the other hand, as already mentioned, super kind-hearted and generous toward the fans. I won’t pull the wool over your eyes any longer! With “Hell Yeah!!! Foursome Awesome”, Gamma Ray show off a brazen vehemence and power that knows no obedience and strikes no bargains! The album’s energy will carry you all the way to the core of the most authentic, snarling, tooth-baring grind of the unstoppable wheels of that devastating monster called “the divinity of metal”!
Lineup
Kai Hansen – vocals, guitar
Henjo Richter – guitar, backing vocals
Dirk Schlaechter – bass guitar, backing vocals
Daniel Zimmermann – drums
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Axel Mackenrott – keyboards
Track list
CD 1
1. Welcome
2. Gardens Of The Sinner
3. New World Order
4. Man On A Mission
5. Fight
6. Blood Religion
7. Heavy Metal Universe
8. Dreamhealer
9. The Heart Of The Unicorn
10.Fairytale
11.The Silence
CD 2
1. Beyond The Blackhole
2. Valley Of The Kings
3. Somewhere Out In Space
4. Land Of The Free
5. Rebellion In Dreamland
6. I Want Out
7. Send Me A Sign
8. Into The Storm*
9. Empress*
10. From The Ashes*
11. Real World*
(*)….bonus tracks
