YMMV / Gamma Ray

• Audience-Alienating Era: It's unclear when Gamma Ray's drop in songwriting quality began, though usual points of agreement are 2005's Majestic and 2007's Land of the Free II. The following era would be characterized by shameless ripoffs of popular Metal songs, uninspired lyrics (to the point that someone even made at one point a lyrics generator), and other problems.
• Awesome Music: The band was created by Kai Hansen, for God's sake! All their live albums qualifies, for sure, and in their studio albums, THE album is Land of the Free.
  • "No World Order" is another awesome album. It has the epic intro, "Induction", "Dethrone Tyranny", "New World Order", and "Damn the Machine" all of which are incredible. The other songs are all awesome, but to a slightly lesser extent. It is the highest concentration of pure awesome one could ever see in a single album.
  • Also "Heaven or Hell!"
  • TAKE ME TO THE GAR-DENS OF THE SI-NNER!!! BU-RY ME AND LET ME REST IN PEACE!!! It's their intro song in their gigs for a reason...
  • "Beyond the Black Hole", the opening track of Somewhere Out in Space. This being the highpoint:
    Into the black hole, into the dark!
    Into the spiral, into the dark, the dark, the dark, THE DARK! *Beat* *KICKASS GUITAR SOLO*
  • "Somewhere Out in Space," "Rebellion in Dreamland," and "Armageddon" are some of Gamma Ray's best songs.
  • Those opening chords of "Tribute to the Past" kick off an album like nothing else.
    Far beyond the rising Sun, I ride the winds of fate
    Prepared to go where my heart belongs - back to the past again
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Directly from being a non-melodic and heavy song by their standards, the instrumental section of "Lost in the Future" bursts immediately into ''Oh! Susanna'', complete with background whoops and eventual humming along, then dives right back into the solo as if nothing had happened.
• Fan Nickname: "The New Helloween".
• First Installment Wins: Land of the Free II is seen as inferior in comparison to its well-regarded first installment.
• Heartwarming Moments: "Gammaween", a.k.a. their shows at the Hellish Rock 2008/2009 with Helloween.
• Memetic Mutation: "Induction", for its boisterous references to the Illuminati, making it a prime candidate for online mock conspiracy videos. Kai Hansen even acknowledges this in the liner notes for Gamma Ray: The Best (Of), saying that it was interesting for him to see the song develop in that way.
• Refrain from Assuming: "Fight!", from Majestic, is sometimes referred to as "Carry On".
• Spiritual Successor:
  • The band is widely seen as what Helloween should have been after Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 2.
  • When Ralf Scheepers left, Kai Hansen began searching for a new vocalist, but demand from fans and friends resulted in Hansen himself filling the role. This led to the critically acclaimed Land of the Free.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • The main riff of "To the Metal" will certainly remind a Judas Priest fan of "Metal Gods".
  • Similarly, the riff of "Solid" is very similar to "Rapid Fire"
  • Rise's intro will remind some people of "Fear of the Dark", or some more remote prototypes.
  • The Japan exclusive "One Life" has a very similar part to "Cyanide".
  • The chorus of "Leaving Hell" will sound remarkably familiar, both lyrically and melodically, if the listener has ever heard Bruce Dickinson's "Road to Hell."
  • "Heavy Metal Universe" is very similar to Manowar's "The Gods Made Heavy Metal."

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