Helloween & Gamma Ray

So I came to this stunning realization earlier. Gamma Ray has the best metal trilogy of all time. The Dreamland Trilogy! That's right, Sail On, Rebellion in Dreamland, and A While in Dreamland. This also happens to be my Gamma Ray top 3. Not only are they the 3 absolute best Gamma Ray songs (in my opinion of course) but they also flow together so nicely, and the lyrics are also really good too. No other GR songs have very remarkable lyrics, imo.

Sail On starts it off in a not so typical for GR fashion. I love how the song gets more positive as it goes on. The whole adventurous tone of it is really great and it's an awesome way to start this trilogy. By far my favorite Gamma Ray song. It's more than a power metal song, it is a way of life.

Rebellion in Dreamland is the closest thing to 'traditional' Gamma Ray in this group. But even then it is more adventurous and unique than most of their catalog. The heaviness and epic feel is amazing and it fits perfectly as the middle song. It's the meat of the trilogy.

A While In Dreamland is like the ending credits to a movie. After such an epic finish with Rebellion, the only logical step is to bring it down to piano and vocal. This one is really beautiful and makes for a good breather. Kai's vocals are really good here. The whole thing does a good job at giving a dreamy vibe too. The lyrics also provide a good sense of closure.

So yea, this trilogy is amazing, the way it is constructed is so perfect, and I'd like to see other takes on it. I know Rebellion is highly revered by fans, but what about the other two? I think they are highly overlooked. And if anybody hasn't listened to these three songs in this context, I highly urge you to do so.
 
The Hellish Rock Tour in 2007/2008 — featuring HELLOWEEN and their very special guests GAMMA RAY — played 95 shows in 34 countries and left ecstatic metal fans in Europe, Asia, North and Latin America in its wake. HELLOWEEN's Hellish Rock Tour Part II has been announced and will start in March 2013 in Europe and go around the globe, once again featuring GAMMA RAY.
A press release states: "Watch out for the full-on Metal Ax Made in Germany and you can start betting on what kind of awesome final Weikath, Deris, Grosskopf and co. together with Hansen have come up with this time!"
Comments HELLOWEEN guitarist Michael Weikath: "The atmosphere on stage and backstage was very special last time. We will be repeating the party and are looking forward to the tour already!"
Adds GAMMA RAY's Kai Hansen: "The Hellish Rock Tour definitely was a highlight of our band's history. We'll absolutely go wild once again!"
 
That's great news! I just hope they play near me this time, cos they didn't during the last Hellish Rock Tour. :(

It's probably too much to hope for that Michi could join them for a handful of shows, and sing during the encore, but I'd love it if that happened. I dunno if Michi is yet able to bury the hatchet with Weiki though, and even if he could, I dunno if Andi would be comfortable with Michi coming on stage and singing with Helloween. lol
 
Here is a great new interview with Andi, where he says not only does he want Unisonic to tour with Helloween, he also wants Michael Kiske to take centre stage for 3 songs during the encore, during which, he will play guitar in the background. Andi is such a classy guy for saying that! I hope his dream comes true, cos I'd love to see that happen also! :)

 
So it looks like I've been out of the loop for a few years. Helloween has released two CDs... 7 Sinners and Straight Out of Hell. To be honest I haven't made many Metal purchases as of late and much less from bands I own most of their discography already and one can argue are past their prime (Kinda like the Rolling Stones.) However In having listened to one song from each album on Youtube, I have to say musically I'm really digging it while lyrically... Well, it's Helloween, not Oscar Wilde. Anybody out there purchased these and have any advice as to whether they are worth purchasing outside of the singles?
 
I really liked Gambling With The Devil. It was IMO the best album with Deris. Now, 7 Sinners is an OK album, but not as good as its predecessor. It has much weaker production, and probably the worst two opening tracks in their history. The rest of the album is mostly pretty good, except The Sage... which is classic Weiki happy song and useless interlude Not Yet Today. If it had production like Gambling and just the 9 good songs, it'd be one of their best albums.

Straight Out of Hell is really bad IMO. There are just 2 or 3 OK songs, production is even worse than on 7 Sinners, and most of the songs are too happy for my taste. Wanna Be God is absolutely horrible. Asshole is by far the worst thing Helloween ever recorded. Even Crazy Cat is better, and that was my least favorite Helloween song till this one appeared. Nabataea is OK, but it's also a huge rip-off.

Maybe just listen this and make up your own mind :D
 
LOL, Thank you for your post, we have very different tastes in our Helloween, I can see, but that helps me. I actually like Wietkath's "happy" songs, one of the reasons I like Power Metal in general. I'll be giving the two links a listen in the next couple of days. And for the record. Crazy Cat is AWESOME! As I stated in an earlier review (I don't even think it was in this thread), Chameleon is the WORST Metal album ever, but a DAMN GOOD pop album.
 
Sara said:
Here is a great new interview with Andi, where he says not only does he want Unisonic to tour with Helloween, he also wants Michael Kiske to take centre stage for 3 songs during the encore, during which, he will play guitar in the background. Andi is such a classy guy for saying that! I hope his dream comes true, cos I'd love to see that happen also! :)

Click to expand...

Ok, so he says that he doesn't think that Kiske will do it, because, "he told everybody he hates Metal." Is he aware he's been doing Metal projects the last 6 years or so?

As for the Albums. I liked them, but both are rather average. To be expected of Helloween's output, (great, good, good, crap, great, good, good, crap... rinse, repeat...)
 
WARNING: TROLL POST!

A mate of mine posted this on Facebook, and I listened to it all the way through... and got reminded of every single thing I hate and loathe about these bands:


What a horrible piece of shit this song is.
 
There's lots of Queen in this. Way too much for my liking. Seriously, Kai Hansen is a huge fan and he brought a lot of that in Gamma Ray (e.g. the big bombastic singing passages but also some of the guitar work reminds me of May). But I also hear Deep Purple and unoriginal neo-classical chord schemes which Henjo Richter always brings in his song writing (this is a Richter song).
 
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