GAMMA RAY: Land Of The Free (HEAVY METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

If "Insanity & Genius" was the record of maturity and confirmation for Gamma Ray, the new album, "Land Of The Free", will be the record of consecration. However it was not necessarily won because Gamma Ray will undergo an important change with the departure of its singer, Ralf Scheppers who left the band in 1994 to try his luck in Judas Priest. Rather than hiring a new vocalist, Kai Hansen will take the opportunity to find the microphone and transform the band into a quartet. "Land Of The Free" keeps a swinging tone between melodic speed metal and more nuanced heavy.

The album starts in a very nice way with two unstoppable and purely brilliant titles. "Rebellion In Dreamland" opens the album on almost nine minutes and takes the listener into a high-flying musical whirlwind. Beginning with a soft piano melody accompanied by Hansen's very soft voice, this track continues on a slow build up to a melodic chorus and then switch to a very fast speed metal. This is a model of musical construction with multiple breaks, a melodic sense never denied and an epic end worthy of a Queen. Undoubtedly one of the best tracks composed by Kai Hansen.

This is followed by "Man On A Mission" which is pure speed metal with a very mastered vocal, both clear and very fast, and an excellent guitar melody accompanying it all. The title is, moreover, magnified by a break where the vocals become softer and doubled by choirs before the title starts again of more beautiful, all in power and in melody. "Man On A Mission" is accompanied by a very short track, "Fairytale", taking up its melody. In less than fifty seconds, Hansen succeeds in proposing a pure melodic speed metal track quite excellent, epic and unstoppable.

"All Of The Damned", and its short sequel "Rising Of The Damned", allow to breathe a little, being a little less pure speed metal, with a huge chorus once again and a darker atmosphere. After that, the record s a bit in intensity. "Gods Of Deliverance" is a good, fairly fast track, but it doesn't have the magnitude of the ones before. The ballad "Farewell", with piano and soft voices, is quite nice but breaks the rhythm of the record a bit. Then the opus slowly goes back to the top, first with a pleasant "Salvation's Calling", speed and efficient, then with another first class sequence. First with the eponymous title of the disc, which is a bravura piece with a splendid chorus.

"Abyss Of The Void" and its intro "The Saviour" continue on the same pattern, with an epic chorus of great class, an unstoppable melody, but which also benefits from an excellent melodic break. The record ends with two tracks quite apart. First, "Time To Break Free", sung by Michael Kiske, which is a rather fun and fresh track and sounds the reconciliation between the singer and Hansen followed by the moving "Afterlife", dedicated to the drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg (ex Helloween), quite dark and heavy.

"Land Of The Free" is an unstoppable and beautiful album. It signs the advent of Gamma Ray among the greats of the melodic heavy scene, and shows a band at the top of its art. This album is in any case essential to any fan of the genre, as it gathers the best of it at all levels. - Official website

GAMMA RAY

LAND OF THE FREE

NOISE

HEAVY METAL