Unless the band is Gamma Ray.
As their building catalogue continued to show the same brilliance with each new album, the thoughts as above began to rise in my head - when would that fall in quality come? When would come the day that a new Gamma Ray album failed to ignite absolute adoration within me? Such was the quandary I found myself in as I approached the release of Majestic back in 2005. In had been four years since the brilliant No World Order and I guess I was beginning to doubt if they could do anything rival their previous back catalogue. Those fears were pretty much erased by the time I got to the middle of this album on my first listen through, but I guess it did take a little time to grow on me to the point where I now find myself.
The first thing that eased my fears and drew me deeper to the core was the speed at which the majority of the album is played at. This is what European speed metal is supposed to sound like. This is what Gamma Ray is supposed to sound like, at least in the modern phase of the band. Dan Zimmerman's drumming is again quite superb. Everything is perfectly in time, and it is not just the speed and precision at which he plays on hi-hats and double kick through the faster pieces of the songs. When it is supposed to be heavy and hard, such as through "Blood Religion", he picks the perfect tom and cymbal combination to draw the most out of that song. He does the same in "Condemned to Hell", moving beautifully between the heavy section to start before moving into the double kick through the chorus, and the rota-toms between the solo section. Dan's work has always been terrific, but here it is almost the star turn of the album. Kai Hansen and Henjo Richter's guitaring is again just magnificent, melodically blending throughout and then seamlessly switching between the two in shared guitar solos that there hardly seems a point when something is not going on. As a result, sometimes it is easy to miss the great work of Dirk Schlächter if you aren't paying attention, such is the way that it perfectly sutures itself to the music throughout. But have a good listen to the album, and you will hear that his work on the bass guitar is as good as ever, especially through "Strange World" and "Majesty". I guess if you have fingers as long as he has you can reach those frets to make those amazing bass runs better than most.
From the moment that the album kicks in with "My Temple" all indicators point to a fast, heavy album. And those indicators are correct. There are no pregnant pauses or power metal ballad like songs here, just fast guitars and drums combined with wonderful lyrics and brilliant vocals that scream or harmonise whenever necessary. "Fight" is one of my favourite Gamma Ray songs - in fact, it has been the ringtone on my mobile phone for the majority of the time since this albums release. "Strange World follows up in style, and then into the heavy and fast "Hell is Thy Home" which barnstorms through the first half of the album.
"Blood Religion" is just brilliant, set up magnificently for the live rendition when the crowd can interact and chant through the quiet phase in the middle of the song, before breaking out into the stellar solo section. "Condemned to Hell" is set up in a similar way, and is driven along to its heights by Dan's drumming master class. This then hammers its way into "Spiritual Dictator" where the shared chorus is the highlight of the song.
"Majesty" has bit of a middle eastern Egyptian feel in the initial intro guitaring and throughout the song, and while it may lead you into thinking it is about pharaohs and kings, the lyrics go a little darker and lower than that. "How Long" follows this, and is a brighter, lighter vision after darker lyrics and heavier atmosphere of the previous song, much more open to be sung along with.
Gamma Ray has made a habit of pulling off an epic-sounding song to finish their albums, and "Revelation" is no exception. Layered with choir-like vocals throughout and enhanced by excellent atmospheric keyboards to combine beautifully engineered melodic guitars and hard fisted drumming, this not only finishes off the album in style, it also encourages you to play it over once again. Which, instantaneously, I almost always do.
Once again this is a true band effort. Since Kai took on the lead vocals as well as guitar back on the Land of the Free album, Gamma Ray has been a true band. Kai has been one of my musical heroes since... forever... and his vocals here are still just as brilliant as they have been. But all five members here make their own statements, as well as meshing into the brilliant band they have become, and it is a pleasure to hear a band when they are so close and like clockwork.
Gamma Ray toured Australia on this album, the one and only time I have seen them, and it was quite magnificent. The songs taken from this album played their part and sounded just awesome. What stays in my mind with clarity is the band members on stage, all with huge smiles plastered over the faces for the entire gig. I have never seen a band happier as they played on stage. It was so refreshing to see, and it isn't hard to see how they keep producing albums as brilliant as this one when they are so obviously enjoying themselves immensely. Majestic is yet another triumph from a band that for me remains as the pinnacle of heavy metal.
Rating: Where am I meant to be, what is my destiny, the path I've chosen now has led me to a wall. 5/5
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