1135. Gamma Ray / 30 Years Live Anniversary. 2021. 5/5

Anyone who knows me will know of my love to the point of obsession of the band Gamma Ray, so it may not come as a surprise to you that the lack of new material from the band over recent years has been frustrating. There have been obvious reasons for that, the number one reason being the reunited Helloween line-up that included Gamma Ray front man and guitarist Kai Hansen. Gamma Ray’s last studio album, Empire of the Undead was released in March 2014, eight years ago. Since that album and the tour that followed, Kai has been tied up in the previously mentioned reunited line up of Helloween, which not only did a massive greatest hits tour called Pumpkins United, but then entered the studio and released a new album. As a result of this, Gamma Ray has very much gone on the back burner. Drummer Michael Ehre teamed up with guitarist extraordinaire Henjo Richter and formed a new band called The Unity, who have released three studio albums in that time and will shortly release their own live album. Bass guitarist Dirk Schlachter has been working on other projects, and recent introduction to the band Frank Beck has been biding his time, waiting to be unleashed. There was certainly a time when I had become convinced that, with the success of the Helloween juggernaut and with both Michael and Henjo firmly entrenched in their new band, that the demise of Gamma Ray had in fact had already come and there would be no further albums from the band.Fortunately, all was not lost. The Covid pandemic had interrupted and cancelled many things over the preceding months, which was disrupting the recording and releasing of that new Helloween album. In the meantime, the 30th anniversary of the creation of Gamma Ray approached, and in mid 2020 it was announced that the band would come together and do a 30th anniversary concert – sadly not in front of any fans except a lucky few who could get seats in corporate boxes in the venue chosen – and it would be streamed live around the world. It didn’t take much for me to jump on board. And the show they performed was just brilliant. That initial stream unfortunately only came through in mono, so you couldn’t hear Henjo’s guitar at all, but the spectacle was terrific. Thankfully the band rectified the problem and then replayed the stream a couple of weeks later. Playing a live gig in front of no one but cameras must have been daunting but it went over terrifically well, and the crowning glory was in bringing back original lead vocalist Ralf Scheepers to come in and sing on four songs. As a present to the fans, this was almost as much as you could ask for. Better was to come, as 12 months later the band announced they were releasing the anniversary gig on vinyl, cd and DVD for us all to enjoy over and over and over again.

Live albums are a tricky thing at the best of times, trying to get all the set up right and hoping the sound is going to be perfect. In this case, with no crowd to work around and almost being in a live studio setting, it must have worked really well for the production crew to have everything exactly as they wanted it.
The setlist is terrific, and although it does not cover all of the 11 studio albums of the band’s discography it does a great job of spreading over the majority of them. The band opens up with its more recent material, with “Dethrone Tyranny” and “New World Order” from the No World Order album opening up proceedings, followed by the fantastic version of “Avalon” from Empire of the Undead and then “Empathy” from the To the Metal! album. All of these songs not only highlight the great song writing and lyrically diverse topics, but also the emotive range that the music and vocals can reach within each song. It has been a trademark especially of Kai’s writing throughout his career but it is exemplified by his co-writers on these songs in particular.
From here we can move into the moneyshots from the band’s career, and in particular two of their best ever in “Rebellion in Dreamland” and “Land of the Free”, both from the legendary Land of the Free album. As always they both sound brilliant here, but the addition of Frank’s vocals make them both particularly joyous in this live environment. In the past, with either just Kai’s vocal line or along with Dirk they have been good, but not as satisfactory as the studio versions. Now though, with both vocalists able to take a harmony line each, they retain their studio magnificence and add that live sound that gives them even more depth and balance. Awesome.
The second half of the set list introduces Ralf Scheepers to take the lead on the songs he was involved with in the band, and each of them are excellent... well... I have always had a problem with “The Silence” from the Heading for Tomorrow album. The second half of the song is great once the guitars kick in, but the rest is only average in my opinion, which is funny because it is a song that seems to be in almost every Gamma ray setlist! However, “Lust for Life” cranks along like the joyous song it is, and “One with the World” from Sigh No More is also amazing. Then Ralf has a rest while the band does “Armageddon” the closer of the Power Plant album, before Ralf returns for the sensational title track from the first Gamma Ray album, the 15 minute brilliance of “Heading for Tomorrow”, where Ralf, Kai and Frank tear the vocals apart. The gig is completed by the usual encore of “Send Me a Sign” to close out what was, and is, a terrific set list.

The performers all put in fantastic performances. Michael Ehre is excellent once again on the drums, again proving what a terrific replacement he was for former long term stool sitter Dan Zimmermann. Given that he now also has roles in his own band The Unity and is also currently playing for Primal Fear, he has a busy worksheet but you can hear why he is in such high demand. Long term tenants in the band, Henjo Richter on guitar and Dirk Schlacter on bass are brilliant once again. I don’t think these guys have ever played a gig without those huge smiles wide across their face, and that can be heard in their guitaring throughout. Kai again stands centre stage and does his thing, though now his vocals are shared throughout which actually works much better than I thought it may when I first heard that Frank Beck had been brought into the band to ‘help out’ on vocals. Indeed, they complement each other really well, and it does fill out the vocals on each song with two terrific vocalists being able to harmonise as well as each sing their sections on their own. Even better here, the addition of Ralf Scheepers, the lead singer on each of the first three Gamma Ray albums, to come back and do so here again on the four songs played off those albums - “Lust for Life”, “One With the World”, “The Silence” and “Heading for Tomorrow” - is just superb, and with all three being involved along with Dirk makes for fantastic versions of these songs in particular. Ralf comes in and gives note-for-note performances of those songs which makes this 30th anniversary gig even more significant and excellent to watch and listen to.

Like I mentioned I bought my ticket with glee to watch this when it occurred last year. I bought the repeat watch ticket, which gave the holder 48 hours to watch it as many times as they liked. I watched it five times, and then a further four times when we got the second chance two weeks later with the proper audio. Even at the time I wanted to be able to record it to have it forever. Thankfully the band and their management thought that would be a good idea as well.
In a world gone mad where live shows of all artists – bands, plays, comedy – has been put on hold for the better part of two years, this for me was a great experience. And it isn’t as if Gamma Ray is short of live albums in their discography – this one being their seventh if you don’t mind, but all of them are excellent in their own way.
This album has many characteristics which make it a vital addition to the Gamma Ray family. It finally introduces Frank Beck as roving vocalist to those of us in the world who had not heard him take his place in the band before, and shows that he is indeed and asset as a result. It has Ralf Scheepers returning to the band where he made his name, and reliving those great old songs with his voice on vocals is also terrific. And in being there for this live experience, it made it the perfect way to celebrate the occasion, of marking 30 years of Gamma Ray on the music scene, an amazing amount of time when you consider that Kai’s original run in the first band he created, Helloween, the band everyone knows him from, was only for five years. Five years to create a legend, who has now had six times that amount of time in the band he created after leaving Helloween. Those that love those early Helloween albums but know almost nothing about Gamma Ray should take that on board – get out there and listen to Gamma Ray and find out what you have been missing out on.