History
Kai Hansen left Helloween after the release of the successful Keeper Of The Seven Keys II album and together with Ralf Scheepers formed Gamma Ray in 1989. Hansen had left Helloween due to interpersonal difficulties with guitarist Michael Weikath and a dislike for touring which had made his stay unbearable. In fact, in early Gamma Ray interviews, he would hint that the band would not be touring much. Uwe Wessels and drummer Matthias Burchardt completed the band and the act signed with Noise as Hansen was already tied to the label via Helloween.
The debut features Uli Kusch and maintains Hansen's trademark speed metal style. It also features songs written for Helloween. Surprisingly the band sells 250,000 copies without much effort. The rhythm section is changed in 1993 (Kusch ends up in Helloween!) and is followed by Scheepers' departure who not only is having personal problems with Hansen but has also secretly applied for the Judas Priest vocalist slot. Hansen returns to his role as the singer (similar to the early Helloween days) and Noise releases Land Of The Free. Schlachter switches to bass and the band moves on to Somewhere Out In Space.
Hansen had also spent a couple of years in the Iron Savior side project before leaving due to a lack of time. In 2000 Gamma Ray released a two-disc compilation called Blast From The Past featuring new and old songs resung by Hansen. The band announced its first American date as support for Blind Guardian at Prog Power festival in November of 2002. Simultaneously band and label began re-releasing the band's albums with bonus songs.
Henjo Richter was injured on a ferry from Sweden to Finland after falling down a set of stairs in early 2006. He was temporarily replaced by Kasperi Heikkinen from the Finnish Gamma Ray tribute band Guardians Of Mankind. Gamma Ray’s next album was called Land Of The Free Part II and was issued by the band’s new label, SPV. The CD was a concept piece and the follow-up to 1995’s Land Of The Free disc. The new album, which was issued in November, contained 65 minutes of music and was supported via a tour with Helloween, which was the former home of Gamma Ray founder Kai Hansen. Helloween and Gamma Ray were touring North America together in October, 2008. The band issued a DVD called Hell Yeah – The Awesome Four culled from footage filmed in Montreal, Canada. Gamma Ray released a new album, To The Metal, on January 29th, 2010 through earMUSIC/Edel. A limited edition version featured a 60-minute DVD.
Reviews
GAMMA RAY - NO WORLD ORDER - NOISE
No World Order, Gamma Ray's seventh studio album, has turned out splendidly despite a distinct lack of lead guitar work throughout the songs. Past a Sci-fi/fantasy cover and a full jacket the band has gotten a bombastic sound to match mostly pure speed metal songs. The album is a pleaser and even approaches Walls Of Jericho (my favourite Helloween album) speeds and vocal pitches. The album is a concept and as is usual for Gamma Ray quite up-beat and fluently fast. Having stated the obvious, for a band in business for over 10 years and staffed with musicians with 20 years of experience, the bands influences are overt and protruding. While the album intro is unbridled Queen, The Heart Of The Unicorn is unashamedly Judas Priest. Further down the list, track seven (Solid) is again bluntly ripping off Judas Priest song Rapid Fire. The riffs and the vocal phrasings are identical. On track eight, Fire Below, listening to the 3:00 minute mark reveals an imitated Iron Maiden melody and track ten is a song off Rob Halford's solo album of last year. There are more examples but you get the point. The clear presence of Queen, Queensryche, Iron Maiden (notice the album's title and the referred to song New World Order on the album), Judas Priest and Halford has gone beyond mere influence. I wonder if the band is aware to what extent its wearing its influences on its sleeve? - Ali "The Metallian"
GAMMA RAY – LAND OF THE FREE II – SPV 
Although there does not seem to be much of a connection between Land Of The Free II and Land Of The Free I which came out around 1995 (aside from some vague musical inspiration) this new album is probably the best thing the German irradiators could have recorded. Following the newly minted trend of rehashing titles or concepts (Helloween, Iron Maiden, Queensrÿche, Testament, etc.) Gamma Ray has put together a long album with thirteen tracks that is full of band trademarks. In other words, Accept, Rainbow, Iron Maiden and even UDO are well represented. It is understood that there are several references to old Helloween on the album as well. Rain has a different bass sound and is grittier than the usual Gamma Ray stuff. On Leaving Hell the vocals sound like Phil Lynott. Kai Hansen does not have the high screams anymore although he maintains a good sense of melody. Leaving Hell is too simple though. It has a poppy chorus and simple lyrics, which is just like on the song When The World. Incidentally, did anyone notice the title Empress and the similarity of the song’s music to Accept’s Princess Of The Dawn? Overall however the headbangers with the long hair have served their fans with a cool album with cooler solos and instantly pleasing melodies. – Sheila Wes Det
GAMMA RAY - HELL YEAH!!! THE AWESOME FOURSOME (2DVD) – SPV 
This double DVD’s first features a May 2006 live recording in Montreal. The set list covers earliest songs like The Silence and Dreamhealer from Heading For Tomorrow and Sigh No More respectively to Land Of The Free, Beyond The Blackhole, and Send Me A Sign from the second half of the ‘90s and to more recent songs like New World Order. The musicianship is as proficient as expected and the visual quality is good albeit a few silly video effects. The stage presence is minimal in so far as a typical heavy metal band goes and is instead filled mostly with smiles and jokes including one scene where Kai Hansen drinks whisky from a bottle not because it’s a ‘rock star’ thing as he says but because it was given to the band by a fan who asked for it to be drank on stage. What is even less rock star cliché perhaps is that Dirk Schlachter and Daniel Zimmerman, the bassist and drummer respectively, do not even take a sip and instead pass the bottle to the roadies. The second DVD is over two hours of Wacken clips with five songs form the 2003 and 2006 editions, footage from a Melbourne show, a commercial MTV-ish ‘Unplugged In Japan’ section, a German (with English subtitles) ‘Road Movie’, and a documentary of the band’s 2006 ‘Majestic’ North American tour which includes all the tour bus and getting lost on the way stuff one expects plus various other scenes from Montreal to New York and all the way to Los Angeles. One particular highlight of the documentary is the band’s visit to an ‘everything for a dollar’ store and the amusement that the band seems to derive from their visit to it. Also included is a German only ‘Historay’ segment filled with studio footage from 1994 and on. In one press conference footage Kai confesses to not being too interested in seeing a live DVD performance, but instead relishing the chance to seeing the extras, like documentaries and interviews, that show others sides of the musicians involved. Plenty of that here. – Anna Tergel
Interviews
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