550. Gamma Ray / To The Metal. 2010. 4.5/5

As with pretty much every Gamma Ray release in the band’s history, I was looking forward to this album for months before its release. In these cases you can usually build it up too much in your mind, and as such have some initial disappointment in the outcome (see Heaven & Hell’s The Devil You Know in 2009 for reference). Sometimes this disappointment is too difficult to get past; sometimes you soon see the album in all its glory (as occurred with The Devil You Know).
With To The Metal I initially found small flaws.

There is little doubt that this album harks back more to the power metal aspect of the genre, but there is little compromising from that point on. The arrangement of the songs may be slightly different from recent releases, and the keyboards perhaps are more prominent, but not in a bad way.
The opening tracks are swift and powerful. “Rise” and “Deadlands” in particular are excellent additions to the Gamma Ray legacy. My initial doubts lay in the middle of the album.
“No Need to Cry” is a generic power metal ballad, (written by Dirk apparently over the death of his father, and with Dirk’s vocals through the middle of the song) though with a Gamma Ray twist that helps to make it more bearable than most. This is followed by “Empathy” which is not so generic, but is less in the vein of songs in recent releases. Then comes the title track “To The Metal” which, by all rights, should be the heaviest song on the album, but is more just a chance to chant “hail to the metal” a number of times over and over.
“All You Need To Know” is a lot faster and heavier than the previous three songs in the middle of this album – except when it comes to the chorus, which seems almost deliberately toned down. This is the chorus sung by former Helloween band mate Michael Kiske, whose current aversion to heavy metal is well publicised. It therefore seems a strange choice of song for him to be involved in. Surely on reflection “No Need to Cry” is more his style! Strange…

OK, so I’ve just picked apart the middle of the album, and yes I am being over critical, because I love this band so much, and everything they have produced over twenty years. The truth of the matter is, even though I may appear harsh, I still think all these songs are brilliant. As can probably be guessed, once I got through the first five or six listens, To The Metal had fully grown on me, and I had recognised its excellence.

The continuing brilliance of the musicianship, along with Kai’s scintillating vocals, are just two of the obvious reasons why Gamma Ray is in the top echelon of all metal bands. One often wonders how they can continue to put together such marvellous collections of songs.