Heavens Gate
Livin' In Hysteria

Is it necessary to reiterate it once again? Let's reiterate it, then. That mega melting pot called "metal," where, as has been repeated countless times before, there is everything and its opposite, is often one of the least meritocratic places there can be. Overhyped bands by the specialized press, which are prominently featured in various festivals, often turn out to be half disappointments, so good in the studio, who knows why, and then complete flops live, while a multitude of talented bands remain in the shadows, the domain of a few interested seekers.    

Among these eternal losers we must include Heavens Gate, a German band that released several albums during the nineties, a great promise that then fell into complete silence. Authors of a very technical heavy/speed but at the same time very captivating style, the band took its first steps in early eighties Germany, when it was still called Steeltower, although they only reached their first recordings and definitive name at the end of the decade, initially also achieving decent commercial success, especially in the land of the Rising Sun. If in the nineties that mix of heavy metal and melody that would become power metal achieved enviable critical and public acclaim, it was also due to them, besides, of course, to more famous and renowned names like Rage, the new Helloween, Gamma Ray, and Blind Guardian.                

Without knowing the band's history, a quick listen to a record like "Livin' in Hysteria" might seem like yet another product of yet another Helloween clone, but it's actually a very personal work, well crafted and of high caliber. Despite the young age of the individual members, all in their twenties at the time, each already showed considerable talent, which would become crucial for the type of music they proposed. If "Livin' in Hysteria," "Neverending Fire," and "Flashes" all present the hallmarks of the most classic and "European" power metal, tracks like "Best Days of my Life" also highlight a more melancholic and reflective approach, thus showing an ensemble dedicated not only to speed but capable of expressing themselves at best even in more paced passages. It should also be said that, as far as the style of the five is concerned, we are still light years away from a certain power metal that would come years later: surely Rettke's voice is high and bright, but he manages to be extremely varied and to express himself on multiple registers, just as the drums are certainly not the helicopter-like drums that would characterize many future power records. The guitars exchange solos in the most classic style, but we are far from certain virtuoso acts that are an end in themselves, just as the production manages to enhance the individual components, giving the whole a warm and enveloping sound, fortunately not comparable to the plastic sounds heard today. The idea obtained from listening to the album is, therefore, that of a group yes young but already with a strong identity, mature and able to perfectly render their intuitions on record, without falling into clichés or gaudy baroque styles, proposing themselves with a complex but at the same time extremely enjoyable work.

All things considered, many aspects of this album and the group, in general, are paradoxical: "Livin' in Hysteria," which followed the debut two years earlier, came out at a time when classic metal, which thrived so much in the previous decade, was now gasping, with studs and spikes destined to go to the attic to make room for the flannel of grunge, in the end a mere reinterpretation perhaps in a more nihilistic key of what had been hard rock twenty years earlier. An album born at the last moment, then? Not really, if you think that, paradoxically, while big-number metal faced years of lean times, power metal, the subgenre that has always exaggerated all the styles of the most classic and orthodox heavy, would perhaps reach its peak, with the various Blind Guardian, Rage, and Running Wild, as mentioned before, vying for the highest positions in festivals and tours. Heavens Gate had their golden period in all this, but the fact that nowadays it is so difficult to find detailed information about them makes it clear, at least in part, how the band perhaps never enjoyed the media exposure it deserved.

In conclusion, it must also be said that, after the Heavens Gate adventure ended, some of the musicians who had been part of or at any rate had gravitated around the group would achieve great satisfaction, with Miro and the historic guitarist, Sasha Paeth, becoming among the most sought-after session musicians and producers in the genre, with collaborations with Rhapsody, Luca Turilli, Kamelot, and Avantasia in their curriculum, while the remaining members have practically disappeared without a trace. Also in this case the final comment cannot be other than that expressed on other occasions: talented, capable and very unlucky.