GAMMA RAY — Empire of the Undead (review)

GAMMA RAY — Empire of the Undead album cover

Album · 2014 · Power Metal

4/5 · 2014-04-21
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Empire of the Undead (2014) is the eleventh full-length album by German power metal act Gamma Ray. This is a notable album for the legendary band for a couple of reasons, the first of which is that it's the first Gamma Ray album in 17 years to feature a different line-up than its predecessor, To the Metal! (2010), following the departure of Dan Zimmermann in 2012 and the introduction of Michael Ehré. This line-up made its debut with the EP Master of Confusion (2013) with Ehré drumming on the new studio tracks (both of which are featured on Empire of the Undead) and cover songs while Zimmermann was still the drummer for the live recordings featured.

More importantly though Empire of the Undead represents the often inevitable back to the roots album for Gamma Ray or to be a bit more accurate for band frontman and leader Kai Hansen. The Gamma Ray on Empire of the Undead are a rawer sounding act than many people will likely be expecting, with the music blending the usual power metal and heavy metal sounds with speed metal, a style that is often erroneously associated with Gamma Ray but was the genre that Hansen first made his name with in Helloween and their EP Helloween (1985) and debut full-length Walls of Jericho (1985). Empire of the Undead is as such quite the throwback to his roots. Although this is still a power metal record first and foremost, it's an entirely different way of going about it especially compared to To the Metal! which was much more polished.

The first three songs showcase how much Empire of the Undead can vary in mood. The opening Avalon is an epic length track that even features some light symphonic elements behind the mid-paced riffs while Hellbent is a full steam ahead power/speed metal number and Pale Rider rounds things off to sit more in the traditional metal vein. Like with most Gamma Ray albums they're at their best when keeping things simple and fast, so true to form Hellbent asserts itself as an early highlight of the record. Overall things on Empire of the Undead don't manage to stand up to earlier power metal classics like Land of the Free (1995) and Somewhere Out in Space (1997), but with further tracks like Born to Fly, the title track and I Will Return it's certainly the case that Gamma Ray continue to produce solid albums. There are a couple of weaker tracks here to my ears, namely Time for Deliverance and Demonseed but both are still good songs although without them we may have been discussing Gamma Ray's strongest effort in years.

The change of pace from To the Metal! has been an interesting experience but ultimately I can't really say I prefer one album over the other myself. They're very much on the level in terms of overall quality if not in sound. If you prefer an old school sounding record then it's clear that you'll likely enjoy Empire of the Undead hell of a lot more, and vice versa if you like something a bit more modern, but either way Empire of the Undead joins the list of Gamma Ray albums that doesn't manage to stand up to their classics, although it's still worthy of a solid 4 star rating.

82/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/gamma-ray-empire-of-the-undead-t3436.html)