Gamma Ray - "Majestic" Samples

The cynical might say that Gamma Ray's image is a bit nicked from Iron Maiden. I'd be inclined to agree.

After the entirely unexpected release of "Majestic" a few weeks ago - the first studio album of theirs since 2001 - Gamma Ray have put up song samples on their website. The band, who are coloured blue, seem to be in the late stages of another change of direction - they started out as a political band with Queen-like influences, then gradually moved towards a science fiction theme, and now they seem to have dropped most of the Queen similarity and started to write something that borders on aggressive Christian rock. However, Kai Hansen's dislike of America in general is still very apparent, so that's good news all round.

I might as well put down some of my thoughts on the samples, even though I know that there's only one person on my Friends list that will bother to download more than one, and I'm not sure if he's got time out of his busy schedule of singing and door-opening to read this, but that's life.

1. My Temple - Even by Gamma Ray's standards this is pretty violent for an opening track, and is almost reminiscent of Heart of the Unicorn (but not as glass-shatteringly high). This is growing on me even though I didn't like it much at first - it sounds like it gets more tuneful just as the sample ends. It also uses the lyric "You've got another thing coming" in an obvious nod to Judas Priest, which is a nice reference that you can be smug about if you get it.


2. Fight - After the calm intro, this song erupts into Henjo Richter's trademark Send Me A Sign-alike arpeggios. There's an unusual fast section in the chorus, but the rest of it is familiar, and I've always liked Richter's songs the best, so that's all right. Oddly enough, the second track of Stratovarius' new album has the same title. Curious.


3. Strange World - This is awfully weird, as there's about five seconds at the start of this song that sound like Dragonforce, or possibly lift music (decide for yourself). There's a classic Gamma Ray choir background, but it's a bit slow for my liking.


4. Hell Is Thy Home - Despite the lyrics sounding like something out of Thy Dungeonman, this is typical Gamma Ray weirdness. It doesn't seem very melodic to me, and almost as if the song is trying to go in too many directions at the same time.


5. Blood Religion - There's not really enough of this song to comment on, but the introduction is very recognisable - powerful Queenesque choirvocals, a staple of the band from the very beginning.


6. Condemned to Hell - I'm sure that this was in Command and Conquer.


7. Spiritual Dictator - Kai Hansen seems to occasionally try and emulate Richter's style, and this is one of those songs - the broken chords are soon replaced by a dead giveaway Hansen Eastern-style melody, though. The chorus sounds great, but the sample ends just as it gets good. This is one of the most Christian songs on the album.


8. Majesty - This is the title track, but it just seems to go nowhere. Hopefully there's something more "majestic" out of the range of the sample that's been provided.


9. How Long - After an intro that sounds more Finnish than German (it could have been written by Stratovarius or Sonata Arctica), this is a religious/political song like the ones from Gamma Ray's early days, and even goes as far as to include lyrics from a couple of their oldest works. It's either genius or a severe lack of creativity, depending on how you look at it. The bridge is rather awkward, but the chorus is amazing.


10. Revelation - Again, there's not a lot of this song to comment on, but it's very recognisable as another of Henjo Richter's, and the sound is very reminiscent of the introduction to The Winged Horse.

Overall, the album sounds pretty decent if not absolutely amazing (for that, I think I'll have to wait until Gamma Ray's sci-fi obsessed younger brother Iron Savior finish their new work), and it's probably one to investigate once it's around.