I love Power Metal. And one of the better bands representing the genre is Gamma Ray. They always have great guitar, great bass, great drumming, and some of the best singing voices in the genre. They’re one of those bands that didn’t lower in overall quality as the years went by, so all of their albums are really good.

Their previous album, Land of the Free II, was incredible, with none of the songs being bad, and most of them being excellent. It was truly something to behold. So obviously I was quite hyped up for this release.

Now, does To The Metal live up to their previous effort, or does it fall short?
Read on and see!

Band: Gamma Ray
Album: To The Metal
Genre: Power Metal
Release Date: January 29th 2010

Well, I think the best way to review an album is to talk about each song separately, so let’s do that. Just keep in mind, I have no idea how to review music, so let’s just go with the flow here. And since I have no idea how to review music, this is gonna be short and sweet. Or you can just skip to the end of the review to see my overall impressions.

Rise
All Gamma Ray albums start similarly. It’s always a song that says “Hey guys, we’re Gamma Ray, we’re awesome, and THIS is what Power Metal is all about”. Cool fast-paced drumming, good guitar, good lyrics and Kai’s singing is awesome as always. While not the best song on the album, I feel it’s the best one in the album to start things off.

Deadlands
This song is really good. Great solo, nice basic riffs, the drumming is great, the pace is really nice, the singing is great. Nothing to complain about here. It’s one of my favorites in the album.

Mother Angel
Meh. Yeah, I don’t know why but I’m not a big fan of this one. The pace is a bit slow and the lyrics aren’t too great. Yet it’s sorta catchy. My least favorite song in the album.

No Need To Cry
The slow song in the album. Gamma Ray has quite a few of those calm songs. This one is not too bad. It’s catchy, the lyrics are good and the music is nicely done. I like when they do this kind of song since it shows Kai’s voice from different angles, which is nice. Overall it’s an okay song. While not one of my favorite songs on the album, it’s the one that gets stuck in my head the most… go figure.

Empathy
The song starts calm, but it picks up fast enough. The pace is a bit slow here, but it has a pretty nice melody. The song itself sounds a bit dark too. It’s a pretty good song.

To The Metal
This song gets compared to Judas Priest’s “Metal Gods” song a lot, and that’s understandable. To The Metal has that more classic metal feel to it(it sounds a bit like Metal Gods in some ways). And it’s basically a tribute to the awesomeness that is Heavy Metal, just like Metal Gods. And it’s a very nice song. It sounds great and the lyrics are catchy, and I really love the more classic metal sound. Official Video Clip

All You Need To Know
Michael Kiske! Yeah! That’s right, Michael Kiske, one of Helloween’s former singers, is a guest singer for this song. It’s interesting since Kai Hansen, who created Gamma Ray, is a former member of Helloween from back when Kiske sang for them. Anyways… The song is quite good. Nice pacing, good music, the singing is good, and it’s nice to hear Kai and Kiske (Ky Kiske? yeah, that’s where his name comes from) working together again.

Time To Live
This one is okay. Not a really memorable song, it sounds a bit “basic” to me. But it has a nice rhythm, all the instruments are well played, and like all other songs on this album, the singing is great.

Shine Forever
The bass here is a bit more prominent than in the other songs, and it sounds great. After the cool bass intro, the song is fast-paced, the instruments all sound great, the rhythm changes are good, and the singing is nice with a good “raw” metal sound in the faster parts.

Chasing Shadows
The intro is a bit random. Afterwards the song gets really good. The guitar riffs are really cool, the drumming is really good, the solo is really cool and has a nice style.

Overall

Well, I’ll say it pales in comparison to the bands previous album. Land of the Free II was just THAT excellent.

To The Metal isn’t a bad album of course, most of the songs are enjoyable. The musicians are still great, Kai Hansen is still amongst the most awesome singers ever, and overall it’s a good album. Not amongst the best by Gamma Ray, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Fans of the band will love it, otherwise newcomers to the band might want to check some of their older albums first. It retains the band’s usual style. One thing is that none of the songs are really outstanding. Most of them are good, of course, but nothing incredibly awesome.

I’d say my favorite songs on this one are Deadlands and To The Metal(because of the “classic metal” sound).

jobocan Music, Review, metal