Written by:	Baz Anderson
Published:	January 10, 2008
Event:	Helloween + Gamma Ray: Hellish Rock Tour (Website)
Location:	Shepherds Bush Empire, London, United Kingdom
Galleries:	Helloween, Gamma Ray, Axxis - London, England, 8th January 2008 by Baz Anderson (54)

Power metal may not exactly be the most popular genre of metal in the U.K., but on these special occasions when two gods of the genre decide to team up and come over to our island we make sure they know just how much we have missed them. Last time Helloween set foot on British soil was early 2006 as part of the "Keeper Of The Seven Keys - The Legacy" world tour, and Gamma Ray's last voyage to these foreign lands was all the way back in 2004 at the Bloodstock indoor festival. The anticipation was therefore extremely high for these two power metal giants for the one and only U.K. date of the Hellish Rock world tour.



A change of venue lead the tour to the classy Shepherds Bush Empire venue in London, a venue with a large stage and a very posh interior with balconies all around in front of the stage. As the doors opened much earlier than expected the venue soon began to fill up, both downstairs standing and the upstairs seated balconies, and before we knew what was going on Axxis kicked the night off in great power metal fashion. It was a long long time ago the last time these guys were in the U.K. but maybe they will consider returning a bit sooner after this reception. Axxis were the first band of the night and really set things alight with songs such as "Doom Of Destiny (Arabia)", "Tales Of Glory Island", "Take My Hand" and "Angel Of Death" as well as a couple of older rockers from the band's catalogue. Axxis bring to the table standard power metal with a lot of good rocking vibes, they also bring female vocals into the equation which is a slight deviation from the typically staple power metal band with just one male singer but on the whole Axxis break no barriers in what they do. This does not mean to say that they do not put on a good show by any means, frontman Bernhard Weiß told us they were there to warm up our voices and so a few "singing with Bernhard" lessons and half an hour later the audience were more than ready for the mighty Gamma Ray.



With a magnificent huge backdrop of the new "Land Of The Free II" album and colour all over the stage the sudden feeling of anticipation of something very, very good sweeps the audience as Gamma Ray are about to take to the stage. With the opening introduction track from the very first album playing through the speakers we get stuck into the meat of the show with the ultimately catchy "Gardens Of The Sinner" leading into the super groovy, stomper that is "New World Order". Getting on for four years since the band last performed in England, Kai and the gang seemed almost surprised by the overly-enthusiastic audience singing along to every word of every song as if the messiah were on stage. Considered by many as the father of the power metal genre, Kai Hansen lead the gang through a set consisting of songs from every album since the original "Land Of The Free" album and appeared to love every minute of it. Plenty of interaction with the band made sure the audience did not lose interest at any point of the set. "From The Ashes" and "Empress" from the new album found their way into the setlist and received a very warm welcome. Kai Hansen sounded perfect live, guitar playing as well as singing, the whole band performed superbly with the super memorable hooks and a large bass guitar sound from Dirk with his rhythmic-style of bass playing underlying the main groove of the music as well as Dan Zimmerman behind the drums playing at ridiculously high speeds during songs such as "Fight" and "From The Ashes".



The long "Rebellion In Dreamland" followed by super-sing along "Heavy Metal Universe" brings Kai into his element. Kai Hansen is one of the greatest frontmen a band can have, full of energy and attitude and always getting the audience to participate while keeping an infectious smile all the time. Commanding everyone sat down on the balconies to stand up for heavy metal and getting the whole room to sing "Heavy Metal Universe" was truly the sing-along of the night. A bit of nostalgia with "Ride The Sky" which sounds impressive live, away from the crusty production on the original Helloween recording, and quite possibly the highlight of the night with the spacey "Somewhere Out In Space" included with a bit of improvisation and deviation from the album version. Happy sing-along "Send Me A Sign" finishes an hour-long set of pure power metal perfection that actually seems like a jibe towards Helloween to come saying "come on and beat that then". Indeed Gamma Ray commanded the stage and put down the challenge to Helloween who were last of the night.





As the Gamma Ray drum kit is removed and the full size of the stage is revealed and the Helloween props and stage is set up it would appear that these German masters of power metal have not held back when it comes to putting on a visually superb show, included with spinning roulette wheel behind the enormous drum kit and large model of the chubby character from the front cover of the new, "Gambling With The Devil" album.



Pulling no punches, as soon as the band take to the stage with Cheshire cat sized smiles they plunge straight into quarter of an hour epic "Halloween" that is met by an eruption of a response once it has finished. Two songs that haven't seen the light of day in the live setlist for a good number of years follow, with "Sole Survivor" and true power metal diamond "March Of Time" keeping the momentum going. This is soon put to a halt with new song "As Long As I Fall" which is a pleasant addition to the set, but generally lacks as a live song, as does "A Tale That Wasn't Right" that always manages to make its way to the live set, despite being one of the least interesting Helloween songs in the band's catalogue. Helloween then do what Helloween do best, put on some form of amusing heavy metal theatrical show, which on this tour takes the form of Sascha, Andi and Markus posing as midgets playing Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water" sang with high pitched vocals, ending with Weikie shooting them dead with a toy gun. Funny if you are in a good mood, but otherwise it is easy to take the cynical side and say they should have fit some extra songs in the set instead. The same can be said for Dani's drum solo with audience interaction, which lasts probably ten minutes. "The King For A 1000 Years" follows and things are taken to a whole new level when true classic "Eagle Fly Free" hits the speakers which automatically brings out the singer in every audience member.



An original addition to the set is the medley featuring parts of songs from over the years such as "I Can", "Where The Rain Grows", "If I Could Fly", "Perfect Gentleman", "Power" and "Keeper Of The Seven Keys" as well as the usual formal introduction of each band member. Helloween put on a very good show but the memories of the Gamma Ray set were still lingering, and with this in mind Helloween seemed to lack something. The songs were not as fast or catchy, and were not put across to the audience with the same charisma that Kai Hansen brings to Gamma Ray. During songs such as "A Tale That Wasn't Right" and new "The Hells Of The 7 Bells" time just seemed to pass without any huge excitement at all. This was by no means a bad show though, it has a couple of mild moments but has many many more high moments with songs such as "Eagle Fly Free" and "Dr. Stein"



An encore later and the 'weenies return with the 'rays for an all-out power metal party with arguably the two best bands of the genre in the world. Both Helloween and Gamma Ray hustling and bustling on the stage perform "Future World" and "I Want Out". Andi and Kai taking turns singing parts of the songs as well as the full audience enraptured in these moments of history when Helloween and Gamma Ray finally got together and toured after all these years. This is the climax of the show, both bands on the stage feeding off each other and clearly enjoying doing this even after doing it for presumably every night on the world tour so far. The audience loved to see these two bands together, and this feeds the bands in helping make a very special, memorable memory for everyone in attendance. Indeed this was a special night of all epic power metal proportions, both headlining bands putting on a spectacular show but the memories of Gamma Ray will be much more potent than the ones of Helloween. A highly cynical individual may look at it as proof that the top power metal possible travels with Kai Hansen and that Helloween have never been quite as good since his departure all them years ago, but any sane person can tell that Helloween are going just as strong as they always have done, and both bands delivered the goods on the night which should turn out to be a night to remember for a long long time.





Written, and photos by Barry Anderson