Blast from the Past (Remastered) Gamma Ray
- 1Welcome (Remastered)00:56
- 2Lust for Life (Remastered)05:26
- 3Heaven Can Wait (Remastered)04:29
- 4Heading for Tomorrow (Remastered)14:59
- 5Changes (Remastered)05:28
- 6One with the World (Remastered)04:49
- 7Dream Healer (Remastered)07:34
- 8Tribute to the Past (Remastered)04:46
- 9Last Before the Storm (Remastered)04:57
- 10Heal Me (Remastered)07:34
- 11Rebellion in Dreamland (Remastered)08:45
- 12Man on a Mission (Remastered)05:44
- 13Land of the Free (Remastered)04:37
- 14The Silence (Remastered)06:28
- 15Beyond the Black Hole (Remastered)05:59
- 16Somewhere out in Space (Remastered)05:27
- 17Valley of the Kings (Remastered)03:50
- 18Anywhere in the Galaxy (Remastered)06:35
- 19Send Me a Sign (Remastered)04:05
- 20Armageddon (Remastered)08:50
Info for Blast from the Past (Remastered)
It was 1988 when Kai Hansen left the band HELLOWEEN. For the fans a complete disaster, for him a new beginning. And he launched his new band GAMMA RAY within a very short time, which in turn reached cult status. They gave us six albums and in 2000 there was a Best Of of these albums. This collection was called "Blast From The Past" at that time.
It should be noted that on the first three albums Ralf Scheepers had taken over the vocals. Then there were new developments. Ralf lived away from the Hamburg based band anyway and then it was actually in the room at that time that Ralf Scheepers should join JUDAS PRIEST as a replacement for Rob Halford. The chances were even damn good. In this situation Kai Hansen thought: Hey, I could actually warble the vocals again myself!
Unfortunately, Ralf Scheepers was rudely thwarted shortly before the finish line and didn't walk onto the JUDAS PRIEST vocalist podium as the winner after all. Of course, that was more than stupid for Ralf. What a pity! In my opinion, it would have fit perfectly to JUDAS PRIEST. In the meantime GAMMAY RAY was more than satisfied with the vocal output of Kai, so that he was the singer of GAMMA RAY from now on and a return of Ralf was no longer in question.
Blast From The Past was supposed to honor the impressive discography with six albums accordingly. Therefore, the fans were brought on board. They should decide which songs it should be. Everyone was allowed to choose three favorites per album. But GAMMA RAY didn't want to simply pack the songs together and be done with it. They wanted a homogeneous image of the created works. And so it happened that they reworked many songs. This included re-recording the songs from the first three albums again with Kai as the singer.
"Finally. After 6 studio albums there is now the long overdue cross section about the work of Gamma Ray. And this one will meet the demands of all fans. Whether "Lust for life" or "Rebellion in dreamland". Gamma Ray let the fans decide and they did their job perfectly. The older songs were completely re-recorded by the current line-up, the newer ones were remixed and thus adapted to today's sound conditions. This also gives the tracks from the first albums with Kai Hansen's vocals, which really gives the songs a new face. Considering the result, it was an excellent idea, because Gamma Ray seem extremely alive on this disc. And with a playing time of more than 2 hours, the 4 Hanseatic guys really offer their fans an absolute full service. One notices on this disc that Gamma Ray wanted to deliver a kind of time document, where the commercial thought is only in 2nd place. Perfectly succeeded!" (Lothar Landt, EMP Editorial)
Kai Hansen, vocals, guitar
Henjo Richter, guitar
Dirk Schlächter, bass
Daniel Zimmermann, drums
Recorded and Mixed at: Hansen Studio Hamburg
Produced and Mixed by: Kai Hansen & Dirk Schlächter
Co-Produced by: Gamma Ray
Digitally remastered
Gamma Ray
Kai Hansen formed Gamma Ray after leaving Helloween in 1989. Originally just a project involving Hansen, Ralf Scheepers and some guest musicians, Gamma Ray soon evolved into a full-time band.
In 1994, Ralf Scheepers left Gamma Ray as a result of living too far away from the base camp, so Kai Hansen took over the singing just like on the first Helloween album. It has also been suggested that Scheepers left hoping to join Judas Priest, who were looking to replace Rob Halford around that time, and when that didn't work out he formed his own band with Mat Sinner, Primal Fear.
Dirk Schlächter, though originally a bass player, joined as a guitarist, then switched to bass seven years later.
Following line-up instability in the band's early days, the Somewhere Out in Space line-up of Hansen, Schlächter, Richter and Zimmermann assembled in 1997 and stayed together for 15 years until Zimmermann left the band for a more settled lifestyle in 2012.
In 2006, Henjo Richter was injured in a fall and replaced on tour by Kasperi Heikkinen of the Finnish Gamma Ray tribute band Guardians of Mankind, whose keyboard player Eero Kaukomies was already part of the Gamma Ray touring line-up. Eero was also drafted in as a temporary live member of Freedom Call around the same time, whose ex-keyboard player Nils Neumann had also been a live member of Gamma Ray.
Henning Basse filled in as vocalist on January 17th and 18th of 2008 when Kai Hansen was suffering from flu. Kai still performed in his role as guitarist.
Frank Beck first joined as a live member in 2014, singing several songs. He was inducted as a band member on Halloween 2015 to ease Kai Hansen's touring duties and "give the band a new dimension sound-wise".
This album contains no booklet.