Music / Gamma Ray

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Gamma Ray is a power metal band from north Germany, founded by former Helloween guitarist, singer, and songwriter Kai Hansen. They've formed in 1989, after Hansen left Helloween, and are currently signed to earMUSIC.

In 1988 after four years with his former band, guitarist and songwriter Kai Hansen decided, for reasons that are still the subject of much debate, to leave the band. Hansen claimed that Helloween had become too big for him to handle, although the group's troubles with financial issues and the record company most likely played a part as well. He proceeded to do some studio work with Blind Guardian. Eventually, Hansen decided to form his own project with long-time friend Ralf Scheepers from Tyran Pace. This two-man project grew into a four-man band with the addition of Uwe Wessel (bass) and Mathias Burchard (drums). Thus was Gamma Ray born, bearing a sound understandably close to that of Hansen's former band, Helloween, to the point of being signed to the same label back then, Noise Records. This formation recorded 1990's debut album Heading For Tomorrow.

1991 introduced the first of several changes in the band: after a brief cameo in Heading... and playing live with them, Dirk Schlächter joined in the guitars and keyboards, and Matthias Burchardt left the band, with former Joker drummer Uli Kusch entering in his stead. This quintet (Scheepers/Hansen/Wessel/Schlächter/Kusch) recorded 1991's Sigh No More.

1993's Insanity and Genius had another lineup change: Uli Kusch left in order to join Helloween, and Uwe Wessel left to join Axe La Chapelle. In their place came bassist Jan Rubach and drummer Thomas Nack, both from Anesthesia. Insanity... was the last album with Ralf Scheepers on vocals, as he would then form Primal Fear. Unable to find a new vocalist, Kai Hansen stepped onto the role, the first time doing vocals since doing so in Helloween's Walls of Jericho 8 years prior.

Gamma Ray's breakout came with 1995's Land of the Free, called "one of the most metal albums of late 90s" by AllMusic and ranked #4 in Loudwire's 2017 "Top-25 Power Metal Albums of All Time" and #5 in Metal Hammer's 2019 list "25 greatest Power Metal albums of all time". With that album, the band earned heaven and hell, toured non-stop and filled arenas.

At the same time, once again, the rhythm section of the band crumbled: Nack and Rubach left the band to reform Anesthesia (and Nack would later accompany productor Piet Sielck in Iron Savior), with Schlächter taking over on bass. Filling for drums was former Lanzer drummer Dan Zimmerman, and a young Henjo Richter joined the band on keyboards and guitars. This lineup recorded everything else between 1997's Somewhere Out In Space and 2010's ...To The Metal! before Zimmerman left the band; former Nitewalk drummer Michael Ehré joined in his stead. They did, however, jump between labels after leaving Noise Records in 2001: No World Order! was published by Metal-Is Records, 2005's Majestic was published by Mayan Records, 2007's Land of the Free II was published by Steamhammer Records. They settled in earMUSIC from ...To The Metal! onwards.

One of notable features is that their style is very non-uniform, thus only specific albums (e.g. Insanity and Genius but not Power Plant or vice versa) will likely be to one's taste. This was especially noticeable in the first five albums, which had at least one member different from the lineup circa the preceding album, but the style still changes with each release.

Gamma Ray provide examples of:

• Album Intro Track:
  • Heading for Tomorrow starts with the aptly-named "Welcome", a powerful intro piece leading onto "Lust for Life".
  • No World Order! begins with "Induction", a calling out of the Illuminati and those who would seek to control others, which leads up to "Dethrone Tyranny."
• Alliterative Title:
  • Somewhere Out In Space has "Men, Martians and Machines".
  • There's the album Power Plant.
  • No World Order! has "Heaven or Hell".
• Ancient Astronauts: "Valley of the Kings" and its intro track "The Landing" on Somewhere out in Space is about aliens arriving on Earth in ancient times and being seen as gods by early humans.
• Audience Participation Song: "Heavy Metal Universe", from Powerplant, is transformed into pure pantomime live, with the audience being divided into thirds to sing various sections, along with a call-back section that keeps getting higher and longer until Kai is the only person in the room who can do it without dying. "Blood Religion" and "To The Metal" are following the same path.
• Bowdlerisation: "Your Tørn Is Over", from Insanity & Genius, has the following lines in the booklet:
  Think I better keep an eye on you
  Cause you're a liar that's what they tell
  There's nothing in the world that you can do
  I'm gonna take you down to hell
  And I don't care just what you do or say
  • Yet in the song itself, these are the sung parts:
  Think I better keep an eye on you
  On every move that you make
  Cause you are motherfucking liar , uuuh
  Well, everybody knows you're fake
  And I don't give a shit what you say
• Cover Version:
  • Uriah Heep's "Look at Yourself", which comes in several editions of Heading for Tomorrow
  • Birth Control's "Gamma Ray", whose regular 5:20 version comes in Insanity and Genius, while the extended version and the Future Madhouse EP come with a longer version. The 25th. Anniversary edition comes with both. Live versions of the song also appear in Skeletons & Majesties Live! and the Master of Confusion EP.
  • Judas Priest's "Exciter", part of A Tribute to Judas Priest: Legends of Metal Vol. II and A Tribute To Judas Priest: Delivering The Goods Vol. II, which also comes with a few specific editions of Insanity and Genius.
  • Holocaust's "Heavy Metal Mania", which comes with several editions of Land of the Free as well as the Rebellion in Dreamland EP. A live version also appears in Alive '95.
  • Uriah Heep's "Return to Fantasy", which comes with several editions of Somewhere Out In Space.
  • Judas Priest's "Victim of Changes", part of A Tribute to Judas Priest: Legends of Metal and A Tribute To Judas Priest: Delivering The Goods Vol. II, which comes with the 2002 and 2005 re-releases of Somewhere Out In Space as well as the Valley of the Kings EP.
  • Iron Savior's "Watcher in the Sky", which comes with the Valley of the Kings EP. A live version also appears in Skeletons & Majesties Live!.
  • Pet Shop Boys's "It's a Sin", which comes with Power Plant.
  • Rainbow's "Long Live Rock & Roll", part of Holy Dio (A Tribute to the Voice of Metal: Ronnie James Dio), which comes with the Japanese and Limited editions of Power Plant.
  • Thin Lizzy's "Angel of Death", which comes with the Mayan Records Limited Edition of Majestic.
  • Holocaust's "Death or Glory", which comes with the Master of Confusion EP.
  • Sweet's "Lost Angels", which comes with the Master of Confusion EP.
  • The plenty of Helloween covers, all of them live:
    • "Save Us", which appears in Heading For The East and a bonus track in some editions of Insanity and Genius.
    • "I Want Out", which appears in Heading For The East and Hell Yeah!!! The Awesome Foursome!
    • "Ride The Sky", which appears in Heading For The East and Alive '95.
    • "Future World", which appears in Alive '95 and Skeletons & Majesties Live!.
    • "Victim of Fate", which appears in Skeletons in the Closet.
    • There's also a medley composed of "I Want Out", "Future World" and "Ride The Sky" from Lust for Live.
• Epic Rocking:
  • Heading for Tomorrow: "The Silence" (6:22) and "Heading for Tomorrow" (14:29).
  • Sigh No More: "Dream Healer" (6:21).
  • Insanity and Genius: "The Cave Principle" (6:51) and "Heal Me" (7:32).
  • Land of the Free: "Rebellion in Dreamland" (8:44) and "Abyss of the Void" (6:04).
  • Somewhere Out in Space: "Beyond the Black Hole" (6:00), "The Winged Horse" (7:02) and "Shine On" (6:52).
  • Power Plant: "Anywhere in the Galaxy" (6:37), "Strangers in the Night" (6:04), "Wings of Destiny" (6:26), "Hand of Fate" (6:12) and "Armageddon" (8:48).
  • No World Order!: "Eagle" (6:06) and "Lake of Tears" (6:48).
  • Majestic: "Blood Religion" (6:53), "Majesty" (6:23) and "Revelation" (8:30).
  • Land of the Free II: "Empress" (6:22), "Opportunity" (7:14) and "Insurrection" (11:33).
  • Empire of the Undead: "Avalon" (9:21), "Demonseed" (6:38) and "I Will Return" (6:55).
• Futuristic Pyramid: Heading For Tomorrow, Somewhere Out In Space, No World Order and Land Of The Free II, all of them feature either ancient pyramids with futuristic backgrounds or futuristic pyramids on their cover art.
• Grief Song: "Afterlife", from Land Of The Free, is dedicated to Ingo Schwichtenberg, the late drummer of Helloween.
• I Am the Band: Kai is the band's Dave Mustaine, as he's the one who compose almost every song of the band, and is the most recognizable member of it.
• Long-Runner Line-up: Kai Hansen, Dirk Schlächter, Henjo Richter and Dan Zimmermann, from 1997 to 2012 (when Zimmermann left).
• Longest Song Goes Last:
  • Heading for Tomorrow ends with "Heading for Tomorrow" (14:30)
  • Powerplant closes with "Armageddon" (8:48)
  • No World Order! ends with "Lake of Tears" (6:48)
  • Majestic ends with "Revelation" (8:30)
  • Land of the Free II ends with "Insurrection" (11:33)
  • ...To The Metal! ends with "No Need To Cry" (5:56)
• Lyric Video: Empire of the Undead has "Hellbent".
• Lyrical Cold Open: In "Heading For Tomorrow":
  We are heading for tomorrow
  But we don't know if we're near!
  Will we beg or steal or borrow?
  Will we ever lose the fear?
• Lyrical Dissonance: Happy sounding music usually accompanied with grimdark lyrics are an usual thing for the band:
  • "Real World", from Land Of The Free II:
  God is an illusion and there ain't no paradise!
  And there is no underworld below!
  Out there is no heaven, and there ain't no Antichrist!
  • "Hell Is Thy Home", from Majestic:
  Hell is thy home!
  Darkness thy destiny!
  • Or singing about the Apocalypse (or Rapture?) to the happy bounce of "Gardens of the Sinner", from Powerplant. They're a happy bunch.
  • "Armageddon", from Powerplant:
  And now, my brothers,
  annihilation is foretold!
  • "Hold Your Ground", from Heading For Tomorrow:
  Come to plague me,
  rape and take me,
  freeze me up! Freeze me up!
  • Also, "Blood Religion", from Majestic, a happy bouncing with a dark vampyric lyric.
  • "Empathy", from To The Metal:
  Take me down to the place below
  Can't you see I'm falling?
  Pain has come and the world keeps going on
  in empathy...
• Mascot: Fangface, who appears on their album covers, as well as the cover of the first Helloween album and EP.
• Money Song: "Money", from Heading For Tomorrow, is about a person with ideals arguing with another who may seem as a Corrupt Corporate Executive.
• Nature Metal: "To Mother Earth", from "Land of the Free 2", is an environmentalist-themed song.
• New Sound Album: Empire of the Undead has far more of a thrash metal feel than the previous albums.
• One-Word Title:
  • Heading for Tomorrow: "Welcome" and "Money".
  • Sigh No More: "Changes".
  • Insanity and Genius: "Brothers".
  • Land of the Free: "Fairytale", "Farewell" and "Afterlife".
  • Somewhere Out in Space: "Pray".
  • Power Plant: "Armageddon".
  • No World Order!: "Induction", "Solid" and "Eagle".
  • Majestic: "Fight", "Majesty" (both the song and the album's name) and "Revelation".
  • Land of the Free II: "Rain", "Empress", "Opportunity" and "Insurrection".
  • ...To The Metal!: "Empathy", "Rise" and "Deadlands".
  • Empire of the Undead: "Avalon", "Hellbent", "Demonseed" and "Seven".
• The Noun and the Noun:
  • Insanity and Genius (both the album and the song)
  • "Rich and Famous", from Sigh No More
  • "Father and Son", from Sigh No More.
• Remaster:
  • Heading For Tomorrow received an anniversary edition in 2015. It includes all the previously regional bonus tracks ("Look at Yourself", "Mr. Outlaw", "Sail On" and "Lonesome Stranger"), as well as a second disc with rarities, including "Who Do You Think You Are", a few demos with Kai Hansen on vocals ("Money", "Sail On", "The Silence" and "Heaven Can Wait"), a few live versions ("Heading For Tomorrow" and "Space Eater"), instrumental versions ("Mr. Outlaw", "Heading For Tomorrow", "Space Eater" and the demo version of "Lonesome Stranger") and the EP version of "Heaven Can Wait".
  • Sigh No More also received its 2015 anniversary edition. In addition to the previously regional bonus tracks ("Countdown" and both live versions of "Sail On" and "Changes") it included the Blast in the Past versions of a few songs ("Rich and Famous", "One With The World" and "Dream Healer"), a few demos with Kai on vocals ("Dream Healer" and "Rich and Famous"), some preproduction versions ("Heroes", "Dream Healer", "As Time Goes By", and "(We Won't) Stop The War") and live versions with Kai on vocals ("One With The World" in Wacken 2001 and "Dream Healer" in Montreal 2006).
  • Insanity and Genius was given the anniversary edition treatment in 2016. It's also a double CD, but all the bonus stuff is included in CD 2: three demos with Ralf Scheepers on vocals ("Money", "The Silence" and "Sail On"), an extended version of 'Gamma Ray', an alternative take on "Space Eater", a live cover version of "Exciter" and two 2016 versions of "Valley of the Kings" and "Heaven Can Wait".
  • Land of the Free was given the anniversary treatment in 2017. It has all the bonus in CD 2: a cover version of 'Heavy Metal Mania', a pre-production version of "As Time Goes By", the 1995 version of "The Silence" (with Kai on vocals), and four 2016/17 instrumental re-recordings for "Dream Healer", "Tribute to the Past", "Heaven Can Wait" and "Valley of the Kings".
  • The live video Lust for Live was given the live album treatment in 2015. In addition to the usual stuff, it contains "Heading for Tomorrow / Dream Healer" prior to "Gamma Ray".
• Remix Album: Disc 1 of the compilation album Blast From The Past (2000) is composed of re-recordings of songs from the Ralf Scheepers era, with Kai on vocals. Disc 2 contains remixed songs from the three following albums.
• Self-Backing Vocalist: The entire band on "Induction". As Kai Hansen has noted on the liner notes to Gamma Ray: The Best (Of), the gigantic-sounding choral part really is just the four members.
• Short Title: Long, Elaborate Subtitle: The full name of one of their live albums is "Hell Yeah! The Awesome Foursome (And The Finnish Keyboardist Who Didn't Want To Wear His Donald Duck Costume)"
• Shout-Out:
  • "Wings of Destiny", from Powerplant, as in "Sad Wings of Destiny"
  • "Fight" contains the following lines, both of which come from the songs "The Wall" and "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas.
    The path I've chosen now has led me to a wall
    And though my mind could see I still was a blind man
  • The booklet designer for To The Metal must be a Warcraft/World of Warcraft player, given the use of the same font as the menus and even the yellow and white scheme of such.
• Special Guest:
  • Piet Sielck, future Iron Savior frontman and co-founder of Helloween alongside Hansen, does backing vocals in several songs in Heading for Tomorrow and Sigh No More, as well as "Hand of Fate" from Power Plant. He as well as Iron Savior bandmate Thomen Stauch also appear in the song "Watcher in the Sky", from Somewhere out in Space.
  • Victory guitarist Tommy Newton does backing vocals in several songs in Sigh No More, and guitars in others (he's credited in the songs "Father and Son" and "The Spirit").
  • German pop singer Catharina Boutari does backing vocals in the songs "Rebellion in Dreamland", "Man on a Mission", "All of the Damned" and "Abyss of the Void" (all of them from Land of the Free).
  • Heavens Gate vocalist Axel Naschke does backing vocals in the songs "Man on a Mission", "All of the Damned", "Gods of Deliverance", "Salvation's Calling" and "Abyss of the Void" (all of them from Land of the Free).
  • Hansi Kursch does backing vocals in the songs "Rebellion in Dreamland", "Farewell", "Land of the Free", both from Land of the Free.
  • Michael Kiske appears in the songs "Time to Break Free" and "Land of the Free" (from Land of the Free) and "All You Need To Know" (from ...To The Metal).
  • Masterplan keyboardist Axel Mackenrott appears in the song "Majesty" from Majesty.
• Start My Own:
  • This is how Gamma Ray started. After quitting from Helloween, Kai Hansen went to work on some other thing (such as producing Blind Guardian's first album) before forming the band.
  • Ralf Scheepers went to form Primal Fear with several members of Sinner.
• Step Up to the Microphone:
  • Dirk Schlachter is the one singing in "Your Tørn Is Over", from Insanity & Genius.
  • Prior to becoming a full-fledged vocalist, Kai sung "Heal Me", also from Insanity & Genius. Until then, he was a backing vocalist.
• Take That!:
  • The invokedJapan exclusive "Wannabees" (one of the bonus tracks for To the Metal) parodies elitist attitudes.
  • The Rock-Star Song "Rich and Famous", from Sigh No More, is one against Money Songs and similar aspects of the rock star lifestyle.
• Tomato in the Mirror: "All Of The Damned", from Land Of The Free.
  I see a face in my mirror on the wall,
  and I don't know what it can be.
  I see a face inside the rainbow.
  At the end of the dream,
  the face in the rainbow is me.
• Welcome to the Real World: "Real World", from Land Of The Free II, invokes the trope's name in the lyrics.
• The X of Y: Mostly between Land Of The Free and No World Order, plenty of titles such as "Wings of Destiny", the eponymous "Land of the Free", "The Guardians of Mankind" and "The Heart of the Unicorn".