Metal Reviews

http://www.myspace.com/gammaraytothemetal

Sounds awesome!

Now that is what I call POWER metal!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f85pvBrJ1bU

Minus the horrible keyboard intro, this is some of the best Gamma Ray I've heard!

Maybe because it feels so 'Land of the Free I'ish! Oh I can't wait to buy this one.

God, everything's sounding amazing. This'll be their best since No World Order if all the songs are this good!

So, this is the third album released in January that looks like it's going to be better than anything released last year. Awesome!

Agreed

But whats up with Gamma Ray and their current record label? Why can't these guys get a decent label of late? Surely Massacre, Nuclear Blast or AFM would sign these guys up instantly

What are the other two?

Well I can't speak on behalf of Caligula, but the best 3 so far IMO is this album by Gamma Ray, the new Orden Ogan "Easton Hope" and the new Dream Evil album.

Caligula may have something different...and probably does

Ha, yep, though I'm definitely checking out that Dream Evil now (maybe it'll be four!). I was thinking Overkill's Ironbound and Heathen's Evolution of Chaos.

Wasnt Heathen's released in december?

Late december in Japan. I'm considering it a 2010 release for the rest of the world.

DL'ing this now. I'm expecting amazing things.

Been hearing good things about this. I wasnt too impressed with the preview song they released, but I've been hearing from reputable sources that this is pretty awesome indeed. I love me some Gamma Ray so it's good to hear that people think that they've still got it, however, I reserve my final judgment until I actually hear the album.

Wow!!! I was really dissapointed with Land of the Free II and had very low expectations and I did not find the song "To the metal" as much more than a cheesy Manowar attempt when I first heard it. Wow, was I in for a huge surprise. This is no doubt the best album since Powerplant. When LOTF2 was uncreative and boring, this definately put in some great new concepts that we expect of the powermetal pioneer kai hansen. I think the song "Empathy" and "All you need to know" are something that just a mastermind like Hansen could pull of. Empathy is an amazing blend of goth and powermetal and has even some industrial feel into it. "All you need to know" is an amazing song that mixes thrash, speed and powermetal with an amazing countrymetallish chorus a la "Time to break free", yeah, its really comparable to that tune since even Michael Kiske is on both tunes =D Rise and Deadlands are speedy gamma ray tunes at their best. To the metal sounds great in studio and has really grown on me and I like the tune. All songs, except perhaps the last two, are great masterpieces. "Chasing shadows" is by far the most boring track, so it is strange they end this amazing album with such a mediocre tune.

I should have a review up for Monday. God this album is good.

Chasing Shadows is awesome!

Indeed it is! And besides, they ended it with No Need To Cry, not Chasing Shadows.

http://www.metal-archives.com/release.php?id=258927

No Need To Cry is a... rather weird song. I can't decide if I like it or not.

Ugh, I'm not really so sure about this album anymore. It gets rather old after awhile. It's definitely good, but... it's not like other Gamma Ray albums. It's just different and hard to figure out. Review Monday, if I can finally wrap my head around it.

That's is the problem with a lot of these releases, we get so wrapped up in the hype and excitement at first of hearing new material, but they soon lose their shine being just more of the same.

Still have this on order so can't post my opinions and new Freedom Call, but reviews have not been good for that one.

That sounds like a positive to me .. I have neglected to check out the last few gamma ray albums just because Kai's songwriting, while good, is kind of one dimensional.