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I appreciate those who, when faced with a dead end, do not give up and attempt "mirror climbing": a true art of "survival." Have you ever found yourself during an oral exam (or an interrogation) having to try to answer a question, posed by the professor, that your brain's database just doesn't recognize? Blank... white... Gobi desert. The options are two. Either you let go and therefore fail, or you brazenly move forward with "mirror climbing" and try to get out of the situation by diverting, leading the professor where you want them to go. Not easy: it requires experience, a good deal of skill, boldness, self-esteem, and considerable oratory or musical ability, as in the case I want to describe to you.
Gamma Ray is a famous German power metal band that I have idolized, seen live numerous times (4), and followed for several years now. According to my disputable opinion, they have been in a clear compositional crisis since Powerplant (1999). From that moment on, the compositional vein of their leader Kai Hansen (founding member of Helloween), after almost 15 years of honorable career, ran dry, and the small streams represented by the growing songwriting of drummer Dan Zimmermann and guitarist Henjo Richter were not enough to maintain a quality level as high as that of the past.
In No World Order (a rather unsettling title if you consider that it was released on 09/11/01) and Majestic, Gamma Ray, visibly dimmed and unprepared, relied on a basic banal and dull power-heavy metal with clear references to Judas Priest. Average albums, nice and forgettable. This is evidenced by the fact that they managed to gather dust in the collection of a die-hard, and strictly non-objective, fan like myself.
Something needs to be done!! And so the old fox Kai Hansen drops the dangerous name Land Of The Free II on the web, causing a bomb effect on specialized sites since Land Of The Free from 1995 is an absolute masterpiece of the genre. To hell with innovation and tributes to Judas Priest our little sprite must have said to himself.
If I have nothing left to say, perhaps I can try to climb those mirrors by circumventing the compositional crisis that grips me. How? By drawing from the past, from the best I've done, and from what great well-known bands like Iron Maiden have produced.
That's how what was born was NOT the ninth studio album by Gamma Ray, but the debut of a new band: RAYDEN.
What happens if you mix old-school Gamma Ray pompous choruses and drums with Iron Maiden guitar and bass riffs from back in the day? Land Of The Free II. Innovation equal to zero. The deliberate quote to The Clairvoyant in Opportunity is shameless, but what about most of the blatantly Maidenian solos that punctuate this album. The ride From The Ashes for rhythm section and guitar work seems really written by Steve Harris from the good old days!!! For the old Gamma Ray, there are references here and there to Last Before The Storm, Rich And Famous, How Many Tears, Heal Me, Heaven Can Wait, and there's even room for Accept in the beautiful Empress. The tracklist turns out to be homogeneous. Among the best I count Opportunity, From The Ashes, Rain, Empress, Into The Storm, and the only song that acts as a thread with Land Of The Free from 1995: Insurrection (a kind of Rebellion In Dreamland in structure and partly in quality).
In short, a great grandma's stew reheated for at least 4 days that shows a great musical art in knowing how to take from the past and rework. A CD to be enjoyed all in one go and to be appreciated it must be listened to without being a nitpicker armed with a lantern trying to find, as if it were a treasure hunt, plagiarism to criticize Gamma Ray. Here it is not plagiarism, but BLATANT citation or, even better, a very fine and meticulous work of bricolage because all the pieces are mutable within themselves with several successful breaks.
Do you know the Dragon Ball cartoon? In a series, which I can’t remember which one, to defeat the pink fat guy who turned everyone into candies, Goku & Co. had to resort to the art of fusion. So, to break into a saturated market, Gamma Ray and their little inspiration merge with their past and that of Iron Maiden (too bad they weren’t told), whom I wouldn’t be surprised if they took half of the record's proceeds.
Finally, after two disappointments, Kai Hansen and his Gamma Ray offer me a CD endowed with the right positive charge. Land Of The Free II is direct, powerful, epic, and even joyful for a melodic metal of excellent craftsmanship played by the usual 4 professionals who have reached an enviable mix. I am sure that at Alcatraz, in 2 weeks, together with Helloween, they will cause a riot and the new songs will have already become anthems for all the fans. A great comeback and a perfectly successful attempt to survive in grand style even having run out of ammo.
P.S. A salute to mista who in the summer of 1999 in Sardinia recommended I listen to Land Of The Free...
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