| Gamma Ray | Review and Rating
| Land of the free
| Kai Hansen is the God of German metal and this album is typical of the man.
This album is power metal in every sense of the phrase in that it has power and it is definitely metal.
The riffs gallop fast and true and the vocals soar over the top. Choruses are written to be sung along to whilst air
guitars are ripped. There are many classic songs here, but as I don't have any other Gamma Ray albums I can't say if this is their best album.
I'm sure it is very representative of the Gamma Ray sound. The vocals of Kai are obviously not the best, but they do the job
adequately. This CD has melodic songs a plenty with the odd slower moment thrown in to give you a break from the relentless speed. Overall this is very solid heavy metal
listening for those who like the Germanic end of the metal spectrum!Enjoy!
| Rating - 8 Powerplant
| The latest Gamma Ray album is perhaps their best offering in my opinion. The standard is consistently
good throughout on this disk. The guitars have plenty of speed and gallop for headbangers to get into. The choruses are catchy and full of melody.
There are nods to various bands in the music particularly Manowar and Metallica. The song Heavy Metal Universe is a dead ringer for Manowar's The gods made heavy metal. the song Short as hell
is a homage to Metallica with Kai doing an amazing James Hetfield impression! A great cover of Pet shop boy's song It's a sin. This song was made for Gamma Ray. Long Live Kai1 the king of German Metal!
| Rating - 9 Somewhere out in space
| Another great offering from Kai and the boys. Not as easy to get into as Powerplant or Land of the free, but still damn good stuff!
| Rating - 8 Gardenian |
| Soulburner
| I picked up this Cd because I heard that the guitarist also plays in In Flames. This is enough to get any melodic death metal fan to sit up and take note.
The album is filled with similar structures to all the melodic death bands. The only difference is the use of clean vocals which sound very similar to Bruce Dickinson.
This is almost as good as In Flames but since nothing can match them for levels of class, this just falls short. Still
it's very good!
| Rating - 8 Grave Digger |
| Knights of the cross
| Very heavy German power metal is what Grave Digger deliver here. Of course there is a concept
which deals with the crusades in the middle ages. The guitars are seriously heavy here with plenty of meaty riffs to chew on.
If you are at all familiar with Grave Digger you will know that the vocals are heavily accented and will not win any contests for beauty!
At first this was aproblem for me but I soon got used to the growls from Chris Boltendahl. The songs are all fairly catchy however there are a couple of
songs which require the skip button. However it is avery decent power metal album with quite a hard edge to the music that takes it away from the more lighter forms
of power metal that some Germans peddle!
| Rating - 8 Excalibur
| The latest album from these German power metal kings sees them attempting to tell the story of King Arthur!
The music is fairly similar to the previous album in the sense that the guitars rip and the choruses on most songs are catchy and easy to sing
along to. I have a slight preference for Knights of the cross myself but I haven't had this Cd as long so maybe with time it will grow to be an equal of that disk.
| Rating - 7 |
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