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Gamma Ray: To the metal
22/04/10 || Euthanatos
Somehow, after the fiasco that was “Land of the Free II”, it seems Gamma Ray was bombarded by actual gamma rays and became The Hulk. Did you see what I did there? I did a funny. Tee hee. Anyway, while not the greatest thing since sliced bread, “To The Metal” is significantly better than its predecessor. Hell, it’s the best Gamma Ray album since “Powerplant”.
That last sentence doesn’t really say much, though, does it? “Land of the Free II” was not only a terrible idea because it desecrated the spirit of a long-loved brilliant classic, it was quite simply terrible, period. And before that, we got “Majestic” and “No World Order”, which were absolutely laughable efforts. Really, Kai Hansen simply rehashed every known Judas Priest and Iron Maiden riff he could think of and called it a day. It was deplorable and a kick in the gonads to all fans, myself included. Yes, despite Hansen’s duck-inspired “singing” and melodic faggotry Gamma Ray is known for, I have always been a fan of the band. Saw their concert a couple of years ago and they simply blew Helloween (the other band in the bill) to shit. Which, again, isn’t saying much, but still.
So, with “To the Metal”, Gamma Ray ascend from “pure mediocre crap” to “the very definition of average”. To you, the innocent bystander, that may seem like nothing, but to us fans, it’s quite a leap. The album starts off great, with “Rise”, a typical metal hymn that Hansen used to be so great in writing. Then, there’s the very “Insanity & Genius” inspired “Deadlands”, nifty song. The almost hard-rocker “Mother Angel” isn’t all that jazz, but has a catchy chorus, and fits nicely among the more mellow Gamma Ray moments. This is when The Hulk’s giant green cock is being stroked by Betty.
Speaking of mellow, the mandatory (for Hansen, it seems) power-ballad comes in the form of “No Need to Cry” which, again, isn’t that bad, but I’ve kind of had it with power ballads, and I’m pretty sure so has everyone who was alive in the 90’s. Let’s move on, man, leave those for Axel Rudi Pell, as that’s the only thing he seems to be able to sell.
“Empathy” and the title-track stay in the average-average-not-going-anywhere territory, and I kinda dozed off. “All You Need to Know” woke me up, a fast, crunchy track, very “Somewhere Out In Space” (might be my favorite Gamma album), two thumbs up. Everyone in Gamma Ray is still playing efficiently, especially Dan Zimmerman. This track also features Michael Kiske singing. You know, for someone that supposedly turned his back on metal and refuses to sing it anymore, this guy sure pops up a lot.
“Time to Live” is also very Gamma Ray-ish, and I mean that in the best way, the chorus is pure, 100% Kai Hansen, the kind he marveled at doing both in Helloween and Gamma Ray, and it’s good to see he can still do those. Don’t know how he “unlearned” for all those years, but there you go.
“Shine Forever” is the most aggressive song on this fucker, Hansen tries his best Halford impression, no, the man can’t sing, but God bless him for trying. Another solid track with a good, catchy chorus, lots of backing vocals and “oh yeah” moments. The final track, “Chasing Shadows”, sounds much like “Shine Forever”, so basically cut and paste my comments from the beginning of the paragraph.
Just an opinion before I finish things off; although I mentioned Hansen a gazillion times, and that’s understandable, as he is the face of the band, the Steve Harris of Gamma Ray, if you will, this album is far from being his show. The songwriting credits are evenly divided among everyone, even Zimmerman is there, “Rise” is his composition, for instance. So, yeah, I think that might have something to do with the increased quality of this release. Maybe that’s true about past albums, I don’t know, I’m not going to look it up ether. If so, I don’t know shit, which would also be understandable, and maybe they all just started snorting cocaine. Either way, I’m fine with it.
So, yeah, this is very, very far from “Somewhere Out In Space” and “Land of the Free”, it isn’t even as good as “Powerplant” or “Insanity & Genius”, but it’s somewhere in there, man, it’s totally worthy of being in the Gamma Ray discography. Let’s just scrap all that bullshit of the last 10 years or so and start from scratch, what do you say, Kai? I’m betting you have an even better record somewhere up your sleeve. God, I hope I’m right, because if this is only a beam of light at the end of the tunnel that’s actually a train, I don’t think I can take the disappoint anymore. I’m too old, man, I’m too far gone. Have a heart.
And if this is your last breath before the fall, your last hurrah, well, good enough, I’ll take it. Hulk smash!
The cover: Looks like every Gamma Ray album cover has looked like for, oh, say, 20 years.
P.S. I just realized that the official track-listing is completely different than the way I reviewed the album, but fuck it, it’s not like I’m doing the whole thing again.
- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: earMUSIC/Edel Music
- Website: www.gamma-ray.org
- Band
- Kai Hansen: vocals, guitars, bad ideas
- Henjo Ritcher: guitars, keyboards
- Dirk Schlächter: bass
- Dan Zimmermann: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Empathy
- 02. All You Need to Know
- 03. Time To Live
- 04. To The Metal
- 05. Rise
- 06. Mother Angel
- 07. Shine Forever
- 08. Deadlands
- 09. Chasing Shadows
- 10. No Need To Cry
