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I shall allow myself to close the discography of Gamma Ray on Debaser by telling you about the follow-up to the strange Sigh No More: Insanity & Genius. Compared to the previous work, atypical for the sound proposed, here we are in the presence of a furious CD of pure old-school melodic power metal. Direct and captivating music that well expresses the sense of "energy-power" encapsulated in the flashy adjective POWER. Listening to the 11 tracks of the product in question, in fact, if you are a lover of hard & heavy music, you feel your blood boil in your veins, and you get an incredible urge to learn to play the guitar to try to follow the exhilarating riffs and solos that fill an unrestrained album that is not confined to predetermined patterns. The power of those years (we are in 1993), after the hangover of the Keeper albums, was still "under construction" in the sense that it was searching for the winning formula and the perfect mix between raw power and happy melodies.
What makes Insanity & Genius so unique? The breaks, without a doubt. Every song offers often devastating accelerations and tempo changes, which challenge drummer Thomas Nack and bassist Jan Rubach. And the solos, you might ask? Luckily, they are not just a sterile profusion of neoclassical scales (taking as a reference the Stratocaster of the Swedish blond Yngwie, including both his past masters and his future clones). The two guitarists are good musicians (not monsters) but they don't rely solely and exclusively on speed: they enjoy creating evolving solos, for a crudely heavy metal back and forth enriched by many riffs that get stuck in your head.
Ralph Scheepers' voice can go very high, but in this album, he also tries to be dirty, rough, and passionate in execution, enriching every song in this way (in Heal Me and Your Turn Is Over he is sidelined to make room for Hansen and Schlachter).
To this, we must add a superb backing vocals job that is unjustly underrated by most. The two guitarists are not perfect in terms of setup; rather, let's admit they are quite rough. This does not detract from the fact that they are absolutely up to par in embellishing the tracks with significant vocal interplays (am I blaspheming if I mention Queen?!) while playing the guitar, and to confirm this, I invite you to watch the 1993 DVD.
The songs use the stick and the carrot. The stick as in the initial Tribute To The Past or in the title track. The carrot as in the grand passionate slow 18 Years (amazing Scheepers) and in the concluding Brothers.
What I terribly like about Insanity & Genius is that you feel the band's desire to write original songs. Now, in the market, it is almost a must for a single to have the same easy melodic lines based on a catchy and affable riff, for the solo to last about 30-40 seconds, and for the chorus to be repeated n times. If the situation has been so schematic for some years now, in 1993 it wasn't, and Gamma Ray didn't care at all about the rules and rocked hard. This is the only way to explain memorable songs like The Cave Principle: a roller coaster of experimental heavy metal, powerful and listenable infinitely for its many facets and tempo changes. The same goes for Heal Me. For 2 minutes we are convinced we are facing a sumptuous slow. We're already ready to take out the lighter and...and instead no! Kai Hansen has the guts to overturn and destroy a massively potential ballad to turn towards a massive, dark, and heavy sound that gives birth to one of the most extraordinary breaks I have had the pleasure of hearing. A sweet, slow break that has nothing to do with the beginning of the song and that gives rise to a crescendo that holds the essence of power. This is music that breaks the norms, courageous that no band of the genre could now bring to light! I could go on with the technical and whirling Future Madhouse, which for 5 minutes presses down on the accelerator with super bass work and the two guitars that, in the end, it’s reasonable to expect to be smoking and falling to the ground: exhausted and without sparing a single note among the total 12 strings. I could bore you with a track-by-track that tries to highlight the technique of a simply superlative lineup, but I believe the essence of the speech is understood.
Hey, you who are reading! Do you really think power is just double pedal, stadium choruses, scale solos, and linear songs talking about dragons and princesses to save??? I challenge you, I tell you to listen to this album and you will see that afterward you will respect bands like the early Gamma Ray and understand why the tone of my review is so sad and defeatist when I look at the present...and imagine the future.
An amazing CD that I almost wore out by listening to it over and over.
Tracklist and Lyrics
02 Tribute To The Past (05:04)
He who found a way to leave to somewhere far from now
Traveling in his time machine a dream that had come true
Fly my friend, you will see, something called reality
I feel good, I'm alright, doing what I please - I travel time
Far beyond the rising sun - I ride the winds of fate
Prepared to go where my heart belongs - back to the past again
I just want to save the universe for all mankind
He wants to save the future of the earth
Step by step surroundings change as years go passing by
He only stops to gaze a little while
I push the button further on, I just can't get enough
I know I will return again but still I'm movin' on
Far beyond the rising sun - I ride the winds of fate
Prepared to go where my heart belongs - back to the past again
As I movin' on I see things to come,
I see fears and I hear laughter
Curiosity, comin' over me,
what is destined and what will happen
And I see the lies and I hear the cries
and the marchin' of the people
As they go to war, heaven knows what for -
God I think I've had enough now
Too late, too late - I can't go back no more!
I lost control of the engine
No light, no light -
can't see where I have gone can't see where I have gone to
Where am I now -
stranded in time
So many years have passed since I had gone
and I have seen what's gonna be
But now I know it is useless to travel on
And I will return to the time and peace I belong to
Far beyond the rising sun - I ride the winds of fate
Prepared to go where my heart belongs - back to the past again
Far beyond the rising sun - I ride the winds of fate
Prepared to go where my heart belongs - back to the past again
03 Heal Me (07:32)
When I wake up at the end of the day
Moon comes out, the sun fades away
I get myself out of my bed and feel like dying
Is it really me now - could this be the real thing
Is there someone here to ease the pain
So easy, so easy now, has it really gone too far
It don't matter anyhow, sometimes I feel like an
Echo in the wind, that's not coming back again
I look inside my head and what I see
Are the reflections of the world.
And I see genius and insanity
Say you're alive - you're part of the show
You came to foresee the signs on the wall
So many tried in vain - they know the truth
Learn - how to live and fight and learn-
How to fight them right, learn - how to give and take it all
You can be strong if you know who you are
The signs on the wall say move on before it's too late
Can you see them? Do you want to be the one who's creeping on the floor?
Could it be forever? Could it all be lies?
The chaos is a killer and he knows who will fall
Help me - I need some help
Now is there someone out there
What are you waiting for
You're on the road to nowhere
The only way I know
Maybe I'm wrong, I haven't got a clue
Don't know where I belong - tell me what is true
Oh won't you come to heal me - hear me
Oh won't you come to heal me - hear me
Oh won't you come to heal me - hear me
Oh won't you come to heal me - hear me
Are you out there?
Won't you help me?
Don't know where I would go
Is there real life... forevermore?
And remember... "Keep smiling... Jesus loves you!"
That's what they say...
Can you cry forever?
It's just a matter of taste
But you say, "Do you, do you know what the truth is?"
Think don't think - what can you see
Our life is just a fantasy of someone we will never see
Therefore I break down in laughter
Now as I change my point of view
There's nothing left to make me blue - never again - no more
Come on in my friend and join the ball
Everything is beautiful - even the band - it's magic
Imagine you're superstar you gonna fly
You gonna go far - so far
Oh won't you come to heal me - hear me
Oh won't you come to heal me - hear me
Oh won't you come to heal me - hear me
Oh won't you come to heal me - hear me
Heal me! Heal me! Heal me!
04 Brothers (05:13)
My life, not yours
Is that alright no fight
I don't wanna quit it
No way, is that okay
No don't you dare, don't you dare
to touch it with your fingers
You sneak around, pull me down
Gimme no, gimme no, gimme no more bullshit
I know there's something goin' on
You better leave my life alone
You gotta take it a matter of fact. Now step aside
We are brothers in rock we won't let go
We got our music and we got our soul
And with the sisters of rock we can change the world
If we try
Cool down, now move around
Someday, maybe you will understand it
My way, okay feels so good, feels so good, feels so good
To be with all my good friends
Don't you realize you talk too much
I got an easy way of life, don't touch
You gotta face it as a matter of fact no step aside.
We are brothers in rock we won't let go
We got our music and we got our soul
And with the sisters of rock we can change the world
If we try
We are brothers in rock we won't let go
We got our music and we got our soul
And with the sisters of rock we can change the world
If we try
In the concrete jungle we play rock'n'roll
To set us free, to lose control
In the concrete jungle we can break the walls
That hold us down and keep us small.
Don't you realize you talk too much
I got an easy way of life, don't touch
You gotta face it as a matter of fact no step aside.
We are brothers in rock we won't let go
We got our music and we got our soul
And with the sisters of rock we can change the world
If we try
We are brothers in rock we won't let go
We got our music and we got our soul
And with the sisters of rock we can change the world
If we try
06 Exciter (05:01)
Racing' cross the heavens
Straight into the dawn
Looking like a comet
Slicing through the morn
Scorching the horizon
Blazing the land
Now he's here amongst us
The age of fire's at hand
Stand by for Exciter
Salvation is his task
Stand by for Exciter
Salvation bids to ask
Everything he touches
Fries into a crisp
Let him get close to you
So you're in his trip
First you'll smoke and moulder
Blister up and singe
When ignition hits you
The very soul of your being will cringe
Stand by for Exciter
Salvation is his task
Stand by for Exciter
Here he comes now
Fall to you knees and repent if you please
Who is this man?
Where is he from?
Exciter comes
For everone
You'll never see him
But you will taste the fire upon your tongue
He's come to make you snap out
Of the state that you are in
Looks around and make you
See the light again
So much self-indulgence
Results in shattered eyes
Predominant complacency
Leads to beguiling lies
Stand by for Exciter
Salvation is his task
Stand by for Exciter
Salvation bids to ask
When he leaps amidst us
With combustive dance
All shall bear the branding
Of his thermal lance
Cauterising masses
melting into one
Only when there's order
Will his job be done
Stand by for Exciter
Salvation is his task
Stand by for Exciter
Here he comes now
Fall to your knees and repent if you please
Who is this man?
Where is he from?
Exciter comes
For everone
You'll never see him
But you will taste the fire upon your tongue
Racing' cross the heavens
Straight into the dawn
Looking like a comet
Slicing through the morn
Scorching the horizon
Blazing the land
Now he's here amongst us
The age of fire's at hand
Stand by for Exciter
Stand by for Exciter
Stand by for Exciter
Stand by for Exciter
09 Last Before The Storm (04:28)
Who's controlling all the misery and pain
When the error signs are lighted in the masterhall
And from the start the action is in vein
Cause the beast is always careful to avoid the fall
We crawl up to the skies. We'll never return again
We're the last before the storm
Watching the sun going down on us
We wish we had never been born
To be the last before the storm
Who's ever gonna change the world
I don't understand what we are fighting for
The truth is sad, no lying, we are cursed
I don't really know who ever made the law
We cry on for more, we wonder what's next to the world
We settle the score, we never look back
We're the last before the storm
Watching the sun going down on us
We wish we had never been born
To be the last before the storm
Cry out for the people who don't know the world
They don't understand what they say and they're cursed
Lying for reasons in search for the truth
Mephisto - we comin' down
Mephisto - we comin' down
We cry out for more, we wonder what's next to the world
We settle the score, we never look back
We're the last before the storm
Watching the sun going down on us
We wish we had never been born
To be the last before the storm
10 The Cave Principle (06:51)
I crawl across the floor never see the light
Only shadows on the wall
Somebody said there's reality behind
But I'm afraid to turn and fall - oh no
Set me free - for eternity
And now they talk about my destiny again
I hear their footsteps in the dark
But then again there was the silence and the pain
Uh lord that made me feel so lost
Heal me - get out of here
Save me - my world's an illusion
I'm still inside the cave imprisoned in on mind
And silhouettes on the wall
I have to turn around to see what's goin' on
Cause what I saw was never all!
Just a move is the solution
it's not enough to stand and stare
Leave the cave and find the reason
For the cross you have to bear
Never, never, never,
Never return to the principle
Never, never,
Never return to the principle
Never, never,
We will never return to the principle
11 Future Madhouse (04:06)
In the morning you try to recover
But you still got the red in your eyes
Then you get up and look in the mirror
And you see the beast arise
Got a big red nose from the overdose
And somebody else's eyes
And you think to thee is it really me
And you have to realiaze
The price that you pay for a moment like this
Is never too high cause you're still doing it
Don't you know that we all stand in line
Our future dreams are just a waste of time
Our future - is a madhouse and we all are movin' in
Our world - needs some action cause there's nothing left to gain
Take your baggy things are ready
You only need to come
Join this century's schizoid clan
The rooms are primed and done
The price that you pay for a moment like this
Is never too high cause it perfectly fits
Don't you think that you are wasting time
Insanity is just a state of mind
Our future - is a madhouse...
[Solo Kai/Dirk/Kai]
Our world - is a madhouse, in the gutter, come on in
Our world - needs some action, satisfaction till the end
Our world - we need sex and crime to supply our minds
An amazing time, come on in
Our world - and we party on till our life is done
Just to waste on time - till the end
13 Insanity & Genius (04:29)
Therefore I'm laying down in laughter
Mighty, the mightiest life hereafter
The trip we started hasn't finished here
And while we think there's nor a shade of fear
Black points jump in crossing lines
Insanity's a state of mind
Both two sides are what I find
And I know they're mine
Sometime my womb beats an acteur
Your mind - creating tragic factors
You've got knowledge - stolen from the sea
You've got wisdom - just stolen knowledge
Back points jump in crossing lines
Insanitty's not far bejind the genius inside
Close before - insanity and genius (repeat)
Solo Dirk
And everyday a dreamer dies
To see what's on the other side
And everyday more dreamers die my friend
While black points jump in crossing lines again
Companions in approaching time insanity and genius
Good old friends in common life. Insanity and genius
Close before - insanity and genius
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