Kai Hansen, founder of Helloween, the pioneers of power/melodic heavy metal.

Now, for a more than a decade, he has been the frontman, singer and guitarrist for Gamma Ray who, fortunately, achieved a stable line up with Hanse, Schlachter on bass, RIchter on guitar and Dan Zimmermann on drums. All of them highly accomplished professional musicians.

This 2001 release is very solid, enjoyable to listen, totally breathtaking. The funny part is that it seems that Hansen was listening A LOT to Judas Priest and old Helloween and Gamma Ray record while he was writing the songs for this album!!! Let??s check it:

* "the Heart of The Unicorn" - reminds of Judas. To be more especific, the track Painkiller.

* Dethrone Tyranny has a bridge session exactly the same of the chorus of the song "No Return", from Gamma Ray??s "INSANITY AND GENIUS" album;

* "New World Order" has chorus totally reminiscent of "Hell Bent For Leather" (Judas Priest) and a harmony part in the middle from "I Want Out" (Helloween).

* and, of course, "Solid" is just like "Rapid Fire" (Judas Priest).

But these are small features in an otherwise marvellous album, better than Powerplant.

In my opinion Gamma Ray is one of the best power metal bands out there. Kai Hansen has been doing it since the early days of Helloween and he sure knows how to write some good stuff. The opener Dethrone Tyranny is probably my favorite on the cd, but other good ones are; Heaven of Hell, Eagle and Fire Below. Often times they sound like Judas Priest but its not a band thing. The album doesn't really have any weak points, so if you want some melodic power metal(better than anything Helloween has put out recently) don't miss this one.

I cannot say that I own Gamma Ray's 7th album, No World Order (2001), nor any of their other records, but I will say this: having listened to samples of this album in it's entirety, as well as the full length Mp3 of "Heart of the Unicorn," I must say that the album is awesome. Kai Hansen's current outfit may be very similar to his previous outfit, Helloween (who I like better, but not by much), and not always that innovative, but still very talented. None of the songs on 'No World Order' are played in a style different from the other GR records, but the melodies, lyrical rhythms, etc., are new, which is good. Production is excellent, and everyone plays their part well on this record. My personal favorite track is definetely "Heart Of The Unicorn." The first song that instantly came to my mind, as well as many other friends of mine, when I heard this song was the Judas Priest classic "Painkiller." Kai's voice was as shrill as Halford's is on most of that track, and the speed was pretty similar as well. I must say that this is one of the records on my list for recommended titles in 2001, and for good reason. It absolutely rocks. Check this band out if you like power metal, particularly Primal Fear or Helloween (I say Primal Fear because their singer, Ralf Scheepers, was the original GR voice.) Keep on rockin'!