lista zespołów Melodic Power Gamma Ray Hell Yeah !!! The Awesome Foursome - Live in Montreal

Gamma Ray’s 2008 live album release Hell Yeah!!!  Live In Montreal appears to have been made with only one purpose in mind and that was to record live the band’s best cuts for the first time by a line-up that has been together now for 14 years.  As it is, part one features some of the band’s all time anthems, including “The Silence”, “Man On A Mission”, and “Gardens Of The Sinner”.  Of course, the greatest measure of a live album is in its recording/production. Hell Yeah!!!  Live In Montreal does not disappoint.  The clarity is very high; all notes are easy to discern, especially during the guitar solos/duets.  For a band as technically proficient as Gamma Ray it has to be.  Some songs even benefit a little more than their studio versions here, including “Fairytale” – this version here driven by acoustic guitar, and “Blood Religion” with its off-speed middle section.  The order of tracks on part one works well here, too.  The cut from “Dream Healer” to “Heart Of A Unicorn” is so perfect the latter feels like a second part to the former.  “Dream Healer” is perhaps the best song on part one.  It not only benefits from its placing and production, but it also features the best contribution from hired keyboardist Eero Kaukomies.  The most outstanding track goes to “Heavy Metal Universe”.  Even though it is this song that bookends the obligatory ‘come sing after me’ part of the show, there is a sense that band leader Kai Hansen knows how contrived and unoriginal that is, and thus employs his wonderful German sense of humor  to get through it.  It gets most comical when Hansen duets with himself ala voice and guitar.  Its quite honest in the beginning but ends with him doing vocal renditions of rockets going off and exploding.  Two negatives: one is just an opinion, but it would be nice to hear a live version of the intro track “Welcome” rather than just the recorded tape.  Two, the lead guitars are so well mic’d up that they pull focus from what should be the center - the rhythm parts/sections.  This tweaks the ears a bit when the harmonizing part takes over the melody in a given break.  Some may consider this the beauty of live recording, but if one were to judge levels based on the studio versions, one would find this distracting.  Still, the positives on part one are many, and Gamma Ray’s Hell Yeah!!!  Live In Montreal  is a great live tome by their best line up ever.

Part two of Gamma Ray's 2008 live album LP release "Hell Yeah!!!  Live In Montreal" is polarized into two sets: one showcases the quintessential tracks from the band's best albums, while the other is a collection of songs seemingly put there not only to round out the band's discography, but to lengthen the disc's overall time as well.  The first six songs alone legitimizes part two as a great live album.  To a slight degree, "Beyond The Black Hole" suffers in comparison to it's overdubbed, multi-tracked studio version, but the others hold up very well.  "Land of the Free" will alway remain a perfect song of power and speed.  It is no less awesome here live and therefore it could be considererd part two's best track.  Highlights on part two include a spacey introduction to "Send Me A Sign", and Kai Hansen singing his version of "I Want Out", the only Helloween track to appear on "...Live In Montreal".  Like part one, part two also has an outstanding track and that's "Somewhere Out in Space".  Despite another session of sing-a-long, the last chorus is slowed down to a soft, cool, bluesy tone.  The returning allegro at the track's conclusion saves the piece from the straining, near diva-like drawing out of the refrain's last line.  Concerning the added songs - that's exactly how they feel: added.  There is also a year and a half difference between the majority of "Hell Yeah!!!" and these four bonus tracks.  "From The Ashes" seems to be the one song with staying power, so this version here doesn't disappoint.  To opine, perhaps selections along the lines of encore worthy would have been better suited for the end of part two.  Still, part two is just as well recorded as part one and Gamma Ray executes every song with incredible precision.  All together "Hell Yeah!!!  Live In Montreal" is a great total package of a live metal show.