Helloween & Gamma Ray

Forostar

Ancient Mariner
GAMMA RAY: Complete 'Hell Yeah!' DVD Details Revealed - Sep. 11, 2008  

GAMMA RAY's long-awaited 2-DVD/2-CD DVD package "Hell Yeah! The Awesome Foursome (And The Finnish Keyboarder Who Didn't Want To Wear His Donald Duck Costume) Live in Montreal", is scheduled for release on October 27 in Europe and November 4 in the U.S. via SPV. The set will feature a multi-camera recording of the band's May 6, 2006 show at Medley in Montreal, Quebec, several "road movies," promotional clips, and footage from the group's January 2008 concert in Barcelona, Spain.

Band leader Kai Hansen looks back at GAMMA RAY's first American tour with pride and great joy, saying: "We had played in the States only once before, so this was our first headliner tour of America. Of course we had no idea what exactly to expect, but the reactions were overwhelming. The tickets sold extremely well, and the atmosphere was amazing night after night. What you see on the footage from Montreal is what we experienced at almost every show."

He continued: "We had been thinking about releasing a live DVD for a long time, especially as our faithful fans had been nagging us about one for years. Unfortunately we'd never had the time to plan and realise such a large-scale project. Well, here you go! This is a DVD the way we like it: diverse and multi-faceted, featuring a musical cross-section of the GAMMA RAY albums recorded by the current line-up since 1998. The road movie speaks for itself, and those nice little extras are great mementoes of our band history to date."

The DVD's humorous subtitle "… And The Finnish Keyboarder Who Didn't Want To Wear His Donald Duck Costume…" refers to keyboardist Eero Kaukomies who plays in the GAMMA RAY cover band GUARDIANS OF MANKIND from Helsinki and who performed with GAMMA RAY during its entire American tour. Hansen explained: "During the tour, Henjo suddenly noticed that Eero has a somewhat duck-like walk. So the crazy idea developed to make him wear a Donald Duck costume at the show in Montreal and present him to the audience. Naturally, this great suggestion didn't meet with much enthusiasm from Eero, and the whole thing became a running gag." Hansen added with a wink: "By the way, the 'awesome foursome' refers to Henjo, Dirk, Daniel and myself, in case you were wondering."

GAMMA RAY will travel to Russia at the beginning of September and is scheduled to tour America and Canada this fall. And the rest of the year? "We are collecting ideas for our next studio album," Hansen revealed. "Quite a few of them have already piled up, so come autumn we will probably begin to sort through them and go to the studio in January 2009."

Track Listing – DVD:

DVD 1 – Montreal Show 2006

01. Welcome
02. Gardens Of The Sinner
03. New World Order
04. Man On A Mission
05. Fight
06. Blood Religion
07. Heavy Metal Universe
08. Dreamhealer
09. The Heart Of The Unicorn
10. Fairytale
11. The Silence
12. Beyond The Blackhole
13. Valley Of The Kings
14. Somewhere Out In Space
15. Land Of The Free
16. Rebellion In Dreamland
17. I Want Out
18. Send Me A Sign

DVD 2

Road Movie:

* Documentary from the Northamerican Tour

Video Clips:

* Space Eater
* One With The World
* Gamma Ray
* Rebellion In Dreamland
* Send Me A Sign
* Heavy Metal Universe
* Eagle
* Into The Storm

Live At Wacken Open Air 2003

* One With The World
* Last Before The Storm

Live At Wacken Open Air 2006

* Rebellion In Dreamland
* Heavy Metal Universe
* Somewhere Out In Space

Historay: Over the years private movies, backstage scenes and live performances
Unplugged: Kai and Henjo unplugged in Japan

DVD 3 (Bonus, only Europe)

Four songs from "Land Of The Free II" recorded live in Barcelona during the "Hellish Rock" tour with HELLOWEEN in January 2008:

01. Into The Storm
02. Empress
03. From The Ashes
04. Real World

Plus Backstage scenes, soundchecks, etc...

Track Listing CD:

CD 1

01. Welcome
02. Gardens Of The Sinner
03. New World Order
04. Man On A Mission
05. Fight
06. Blood Religion
07. Heavy Metal Universe
08. Dreamhealer
09. The Heart Of The Unicorn
10. Fairytale
11. The Silence

CD 2

01. Beyond The Blackhole
02. Valley Of The Kings
03. Somewhere Out In Space
04. Land Of The Free
05. Rebellion In Dreamland
06. I Want Out
07. Send Me A Sign

Bonus Tracks:

08. Into The Storm
09. Empress
10. From The Ashes
11. Real World


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Re: Gamma Ray (new DVD!)

Did you read this from the Gamma Ray website?  Because I haven't been able to access that for months for some reason...
 
Re: Gamma Ray (new DVD!)

I'm going to see them at the same venue in 7 days!!!!!!!!



If only they played that setlist, and Helloween wasn't headlining...
 
Re: Gamma Ray (new DVD!)

Based on the later half of that trailer, the DVD seems to suffer from a very severe case of Steve Harris Video syndrome.

I really would love to see these guys live again, though.  Last time I saw them as opener for Helloween and I didn't even know them then.  And they're the only "opener" (though they weren't really a warm-up band or opener) that I really enjoyed despite not knowing them at all.  Now the same gig (Helloween + Gamma Ray) would be beyond my wildest dreams.

I won't be getting this DVD, though.  I watch DVDs too rarely for them to be worth the money and my budget is very tight anyway now.
 
Re: Gamma Ray (new DVD!)

Invader said:
I really would love to see these guys live again, though.  Last time I saw them as opener for Helloween and I didn't even know them then.  And they're the only "opener" (though they weren't really a warm-up band or opener) that I really enjoyed despite not knowing them at all.  Now the same gig (Helloween + Gamma Ray) would be beyond my wildest dreams.

I would have loved to be in that show. You got gaps in your Metal History not to know Hansen left helloween and formed Gamma Ray! But now you know so all is forgiven. The gods of Power Metal have been a peaced.
 
Re: Gamma Ray (new DVD!)

Onhell said:
You got gaps in your Metal History not to know Hansen left helloween and formed Gamma Ray!

I was informed of this at the gig. :D  Nowadays, I almost love Gamma Ray more than Helloween.  Almost, because I'm never certain.  My preference always seems to change.
 
Re: Gamma Ray (new DVD!)

True, for one Gamma Ray has been much more consistent than Helloween.
 
Re: Gamma Ray (new DVD!)

Onhell said:
True, for one Gamma Ray has been much more consistent than Helloween.

Also, Gamma Ray has released a good album in the last 20 years.  That's a plus.
 
Re: Gamma Ray (new DVD!)

"A" good album?! try like all their stuff since 1996! That's more than one. Hell Majestic was just that... freaking heavy awesome album. Land of the Free is great and No World Order is at the very least consistent and very solid... to name a few :)
 
Re: Gamma Ray (new DVD!)

well, I was saying that Helloween hasn't.  It was a jab at them.

As for Gamma Ray, of course they've released a ton of good stuff! I am very pro-Kai in my leanings for the Helloween/Gamma Ray battle.
 
Re: Gamma Ray (new DVD!)

I don't think that Gamma Ray was consistent in the last 10 years.

They released a decent album but it was about time. New World Order features a damn fine artwork and some nice tracks (one of my favourites "Heart of the Unicorn"), but it also has less interesting songs. The one but last album (I don't even remember the title at this early hour, but it says enough) was a big disappointment to me. So much recycling, copying, uninspired crap.

The last really GREAT Gamma Ray album, from the beginning until the end is in my opinion Power Plant. That was in the nineties.
 
Re: Gamma Ray (new DVD!)

Majestic was 2005 and it is really good. Land of the Free II is probably the one you are thinking of... There is still a lot of Gamma Ray I need to get, but I'll keep my eye out for Powerplant :)
 
Re: Gamma Ray (new DVD!)

I don't like Powerplant that much.  I think it has a few good songs, a lot of utter garbage.  I really like New World Order though.

Haven't heard much of Land of the Free II yet.  Heard there was a lot of Maiden-stealing going on, though.
 
Re: Gamma Ray (new DVD!)

Utter garbage, Power Plant? Well, you're certainly in the minority (not that it matters, everyone his own taste ;) ). Just wanted to point out that it's one of the most succesful Gamma Ray albums, it got raving reviews by every magazine when it came out. A highly acclaimed record.

My favourite GR records are even older. Somewhere Out in Space and Land of the Free contain many excellent melodies and the atmosphere of Sigh No More still does it for me.
 
Re: Gamma Ray (new DVD!)

I like Land of the Free and Powerplant more than Somewhere Out in Space.  Nothing wrong with the album, but it just doesn't seem to have many stand-out tracks and it's never really "clicked" with me as much as the other two.
 
Re: Helloween and Gamma Ray topic

Forostar said:
Hansen wrote at least 50% of Helloween's songs before he left, maybe even more. Mustaine didn't.
Helloween released two flop records right after Hansen left. Metallica didn't (right after Mustaine left).
So Hansen really was essential for Helloween's rise and success in the 80s. Mustaine wasn't.

But I agree that we got two interesting bands in the end. The same goes for After Forever and Epica (if their history says something ;) ), and some other bands which "came out of one".

Kai Hansen's songs have always been the ones for me in Helloween. The man has some gift for catchy songs and great melodies. He still has the goods, but not on most of his songs, which is imo the difference with older Gamma Ray and his Helloween era, when he "scored 8 or 9 out of 10 times".

Perhaps we'd better continue here?

Yes, let's continue here.  True, Helloween took a long time making a comeback, but they seem like a healthy and balanced band now, whereas Metallica certainly don't (or didn't a few years back). 

I think the problem is that Kai writes most of the stuff in Gamma Ray, so he's bound to "run out" eventually.  To continue the Megadeth analogy, Megadeth also seemed creatively fairly exhausted at the end of the 90s, though recently they've recovered somewhat.  I'm not that familiar with Gamma Ray's newer stuff, but it doesn't seem as good as their old stuff, so maybe Kai can still pull off a really really good album like Land of the Free?
 
Re: Helloween and Gamma Ray topic

Good point when you talk about "running out" (of ideas). Let's indeed hope that the last album might be a prelude of a very strong next album again.
 
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