Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Hansen & Friends
Label: Ear Music Records
Release: 2016
Running time: 54:28
Rating: 4/5
If anyone could do it, it’s Kai Hansen! Immodestly put, he’s the musician who has probably done more than anyone for the affirmation, rise and popularization of European power metal. From his beginnings with the birth of Hellloween, which Hansen co-founded in the early eighties, through Gamma Ray and Unisonic.
The Hansen & Friends album could easily have carried just the Hansen tag (minus the Friends), but Kai keeps an incredible respect for the musical comrades he helped forge modern metal with. So after more than thirty years in music, Kai decided to finally record a proper solo studio album. To do that, he gathered three excellent musicians around him: Alexander Dietz (bass) of the notorious metalcore outfit Heaven Shall Burn, Carcas drummer Daniel Widling, and guitarist Eike Freese of Dark Age, who already worked with Hansen on shaping the sound of the latest Gamma Ray releases. So basically it’s a quartet that brings Hansen’s ideas to life. Performance-wise. The arrangements and compositional details were of course Hansen’s own doing, and for the cherry on top of the cream he invited a whole bunch of other guests to the album, people whose contributions have left a lasting mark on the metal scene. These are musicians Kai has been tightly connected with throughout the years. Mostly it’s the crew of his Hamburg friends from Blind Guardian (Hansi Kürsch), Iron Savior (Piet Sielck), here we also have Roland Grapow and Michael Weikarth – good old Helloween acquaintances of Kai’s, former Gamma Ray screamer Ralf Scheppers (Primal Fear), plus another of Kai’s former Helloween companions, Michael Kiske (Unisonic), and the always likable Tobias Sammet (Edguy, Avantasia). In short, from just this quick flyover of some of the guest names, it’s not hard to conclude that »XXX – Three Decades in Metal« is an absolutely German power metal album. To the bone. You can’t get deeper or closer to it than this.
So what we have here is an »auto-biographical« album by Kai Hansen, one that takes us straight to the very core of this musician’s essence. In a not-too-different story, these compositions could have worked without much trouble on Judas Priest or even Accept albums, since Hansen has always drawn inspiration from those two bands. But above all, of course, they’d fit on practically any album by the artists we can count as Hansen’s contemporaries and typical representatives of German power metal, from Scanner and Helloween to Gamma Ray, Unisonic, Iron Savior and early Edguy. In short. It’s all tightly interwoven. Ideas and songwriting. Energy and connections!
»XXX – Three Decades in Metal« is an album that all fans of the old school of European power metal simply have to check out. That is, the Hamburg metal school. It’ll fit you like a glove and you’ll be adding it to your album collection in no time, with the greatest enthusiasm. Right next to the releases by (especially) Helloween, Gamma Ray, Unisonic, Iron Savior and so on….
»XXX – Three Decades of Metal« is an album where Kai Hansen let loose and had a blast. He freed himself from artistic shackles and whipped up a bunch of incredibly elemental metal riffs that sound awfully familiar, yet in the heartfelt intensity of the performance they ignite in a fresh and phenomenal way. Again and again. The production sizzles with the adrenaline rush of hellish, noisy fury, and the album is soaked in brilliant guitar soloing. The »gang screams« occasionally veer on purpose into »metalcore« tunes, a special and extra (optional) but fun spice on the album. Then there are the many contributions from guest vocalists, who with their signature vocal characters naturally add extra value to the record. However I turn it, it’s an excellent achievement. As expected, whenever the name Kai Hansen is signed under it.
Hansen & Friends – Born Free (official video):
Lineup
Kai Hansen – vocals, guitar
Eike Freese – guitar, vocals on track no. 9
Alexander Dientz – bass, vocals on track no. 7
Daniel Wilding – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Ralf Scheppers – vocals on track no. 2
Piet Sielck – vocals on track no. 2
dee Snider – vocals on track no. 3
Steve McT as The Mange – vocals on track no. 3
Tobia Sammet – vocals on tracks no. 4 and 5
Michael Kiske – vocals on track no. 5
Frank Beck – vocals on track no. 5
Roland Grapow – guitar solo on track no. 5
Clementine Delaune – vocals on tracks no. 6, 7 and 8
Marcus Bischoff – vocals on track no. 6
Richard Sjunnesson – vocals on track no. 6
Michael Weikath – guitar solo on track no. 6
Hansi Kürsch – vocals on track no. 10
Tim Hansen – guitar solo on track no. 10
Production
Kai Hansen
Track list
1. Born Free
2. Enemies Of Fun
3. Contract Sun)
4. Making Headlines
5. Stranger In Time
6. Fire And Ice
7. Left Behind
8. All Or Nothing
9. Burning Bridges
10. Follow The Sun
