10/31/2007 11:56

Gamma Ray

Gamma Ray: 'Land of the Free II'

Gamma Ray's 9th studio album 'Land of the Free II' will be released on 19.11.2007, through SPV.

Tracklisting:
1. Into the Storm (03:47) [watch video]
2. From the Ashes (05:26)
3. Rising Again (00:27)
4. To Mother Earth (05:11)
5. Rain (05:16)
6. Leaving Hell (04:20)
7. Empress (06:22)
8. When the World (05:44)
9. Opportunity (07:14)
10. Real World (05:42)
11. Hear Me Calling (04:14)
12. Insurrection (11:33)

All tracks available for listening at SPV, by the way!

Information from the Gamma Ray website: 'Land of the Free II', the current album release by the group surrounding guitarist/vocalist Kai Hansen, consciously refers to their 1995 classic 'Land of the Free'. “'Majestic' presented Gamma Ray's dark side, while its predecessor, 'No World Order', was more of an eighties-inspired record. This time we wanted to turn our attention to a side of the band that has always been our greatest strength: positive power.”
Gamma Ray produced their new album themselves. All four musicians, Kai Hansen, Henjo Richter (guitar), Dirk Schlächter (bass) and Daniel Zimmermann (drums), are experienced enough to translate their ideas at the studio. But for the first time in ages, the band allowed themselves the luxury of enlisting outside support for certain stages of the recording process. “We wanted to have a clear head in some areas to be able to concentrate on the important things,” Hansen explains the enlistment of Tommy Newton (Helloween, UFO, etc.) and his Area 51 studio in Celle, where the new material was mixed. Newton also took care of the drum parts as a sound engineer at Gamma Ray's own studio.
Starting at the end of November, the band will embark on the Hellish Rock 2007/08 tour, alongside Helloween. “The idea for the tour matured during a number of major festivals, where Gamma Ray and Helloween both played. As both bands' schedules are running parallel for the first time in years, we decided to put this idea into practice at last.“ The fans can look forward to a full Gamma Ray show, plus a nightly session together with Helloween, likely to feature a number of classics from Kai Hansen’s own Helloween era."

(source: the official Gamma Ray website)

Older news about this:

German heavy metallers Gamma Ray's next album will be continuation to 1995 classic 'Land of the Free'. 'Land of the Free Part II' should be out in late 2007.

And here's more news on the new Gamma Ray DVD:

"At last! Gamma Ray has finally got around to giving us something incredible to watch: after this year's US tour the boys from Hamburg decided it was high time for a proper double DVD. It simply isn't enough to excel on stage. No, the boys wanted to dazzle the fans, amuse them and update them with interesting news tit bits.

Totally unfazed by the omnipresent football world cup and the prevailing hot summer weather, this active quartet viewed hours of movie footage. Now they are nearly finished with their brand new visual masterpiece with the, erm, slightly different title: 'Hell Yeah!!! The Awesome Foursome (and the Finnish keyboarder who didn't want to wear his Donald Duck costume) Live In Montreal'

Next to a magical performance on 6th May in Medley, Montral/Canada, there's tons of great behind-the-scenes footage, courtesy of camera man Markus Kreuz, who accompanied the band at all times. The band allowed the camera to run 24/7, resulting in a plethora of impressions, ranging from country and people, to profound comments by the Nightliner-bus driver. This is truly a great road movie with and unusually intimate insight into the life of a band on the road, the tour bus, and pretty much everything else. The highs and lows, the goofy and the profound, shopping, immigration troubles, missed flights, the works – uncut and raw, and Gamma Ray are proud of it - and rightly so!

There is ample of additional material on the bonus DVD, with a big historical part, with live footage of gigs of yesteryear and backstage material from Japan and the Wacken Open Air. Last but definitely not least, there is the entire collection of the band's video-clips to be found on there. Great stuff!

Singer and guitarist Kai Hansen says:
"We have been thinking about doing a live DVD for a long time now. We simply owed it to all the loyal fans out there who have supported us for all these years. But we always lacked the time to actually execute a project of such a big dimension. Well, here you go! This is a DVD to our taste, versatile and interesting with a live-overview of Gamma Ray through the ages, while the main focus is on the albums that were produced with the current band line-up that has existed since 1998. The road movie speaks for itself, and all the great extras are also a great souvenir for us as a band to remind us of the great times so far."

So, all's well that ends well. After all the hard work of the last weeks and months, this audio visual milestone is close to completion. Here is a little taster to give you a little insight into what’s yet to come.
Enjoy!!"

(source: the official Gamma Ray website)