At the end of the year 1988, Kai Hansen decided to leave the band Helloween due to the fact that he was fed up of the power struggle among the various cliques within the band. Originally, Kai told himself that he no longer wished to be a part of any band. At that point, Kai and Ralph Scheepers decided that they would embark on a project together. During the recordings for their new project, Kai and Ralph both agreed that the atmosphere and mindset of the recordings with the studio musicians were going so well that they would indeed form a new band. Thus, Gamma Ray was born.
Gamma Ray released their debut album entitled, Heading for Tomorrow in January 1990. This album was considered a success and did especially well in such places as Germany and Japan. Many people think that Gamma Ray's debut album was successful due to the fact that Helloween fans were looking for the chemistry that had made Helloween so popular in the late 1980's. Helloween had apparently changed their style of music to a softer gentler one, but die-hard fans quickly realized that Kai Hansen had stuck to the formula that had once made Helloween so popular.
Live exposure for the band was delayed after their first album due to the fact that then drummer, Mathias Burchardt, subsequently decided to leave the band as he wished to concentrate his efforts on his studies. Uli Kusch eventually replaced Burchardt by and the band was able to finally go out on the road and promote their debut effort. The band at the time of their first tour consisted of the following members, Kai Hanson. Uli Kusch, Ralph Sceepers, Uwe Wessel and Dirk Schlachter. In September of 1990, the band decided to release a new EP that would co inside with the tour. Heaven Can Wait included a re recorded version of the title track and consisted of one new song as well as three songs that were left over from the Heading for Tomorrow recordings. Their first tour was considered a success and did especially well in such places as Japan. In early 1991, a documentary live video that was filmed while the band was on tour in Tokyo was released. Due to the sacristy of this video, January 1998 saw the release of this often hard to find documentary entitled Heading for Tomorrow.
In February of 1991, armed with a variety of new songs, the band traveled to Denmark and began rehearsing for the follow up to Heading for Tomorrow. This effort led to the bands second full-length album entitles Sigh no more which was released in September on 1991. The style of music that the band played on Sigh no More was vastly different from the style, which was demonstrated on Heading for Tomorrow. Many believe that this might have come about because of such factors as The Gulf War, which was in full swing at the time the album was in its conception. This change of style brought on a wide spread negative reaction from the fans on the following tour. The band played to less people night after night and when they visited such places as , Germany, where the previous tour had been very successful, the band still found themselves playing in front of smaller crowds.
In 1992 Uli and Uwe left Gamma Ray sighting personnel disagreements and they were eventually replaced by two members of a band called, Anesthesia. Jan Rubach and Thomas Nack were introduced into the band as its new rhythm section filling in for the two members that had left .At this point in time the band also began construction of its own studio, therefore 1992 did not see any new works fron Gamma Ray. In June of 1993 the band release Insanity and Genuis. Many people believe that this offering came closer to resembling the style portrayed by Heading for Tomorrow. Kai had appeared to have returned to his old style. That being the one which people often tend to believe brings out his best work. The album was followed up with the bands second live video filmed in Hamburg entitles, Lust for live and it has also been released as a live C.D. called, The Power of Metal. During the preparations for the bands follow up offering, vocalist Ralph Scheepers was fired from the band. There were many reasons as to why Ralph was in fact let go but one of the major ones was that Ralph was longing to become the new lead vocalist for Judas Priest and Kai didn't believe that this would enable Ralph to commit himself to Gamma Ray.
In May of 1995 the band released the now classic concept album Land of the Free. This album also saw a reunion of sorts between Kai Hansen and Mike Kiske. Mike Kiske did the lead vocals for one track on the album and sang the chorus for the albums title song. This brought up much speculation that Mike Kiske would re emerge with Kai Hansen as Gamma Ray's new lead vocalist however we soon found out that this rumor would not come to pass as both has stated that Mike Kiske was taking a musical direction that did not conform with the standards related to that of Gamma Ray.
In August of 1995, Kai and Dirk once again entered their studio and began work on an EP entitled, Silent Miracles. This EP consisted of four ballads and many say that Kai's best vocal performance came from a song called, A while in Dreamland. The EP's final workings could not be completed before the band went out on the road, therefore the release of Silent Miracles was delayed until February 1996. In September the band then embarked on an ambitious European tour. The band released a live album in May of 1996 called, Alive 95 and they then proceeded to journey into Spain along with Stratovarious and Rage. However, during the rehearsals for the upcoming tour, Jan and Thomas decided to leave the band. Jan left the band because Dirk wanted to return to playing Bass. Thomas left because he was concentrating his efforts on another musical project to which he was involved for quit some time. However, Thomas remained on board throughout the Spanish tour while Jan was replaced during the tour by guitarist Henjo Richler.
The band, which now consisted solely of Kai and Dirk began writing for a new release in late 1996 but it took them until February 1997 to add the two new members, drummer Daniel Zimmerman and the now official member Henjo Richter. With a new line up and probably the best to date, Gamma Ray released in May of 1997 an EP entitled Valley of the Kings, this was quickly followed up in August by the brilliant Somewhere out in Space. This album immediately entered the charts in nearly every European country as well as in Japan. The album was followed up be a very successful European tour and it would now appear that the band may return live to European stages this summer.
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