Band leader Kai Hansen looks back at GAMMA RAY's first American tour with pride and great joy, saying: "We had played in the States only once before, so this was our first headliner tour of America. Of course we had no idea what exactly to expect, but the reactions were overwhelming. The tickets sold extremely well, and the atmosphere was amazing night after night. What you see on the footage from Montreal is what we experienced at almost every show."
He continued: "We had been thinking about releasing a live DVD for a long time, especially as our faithful fans had been nagging us about one for years. Unfortunately we'd never had the time to plan and realise such a large-scale project. Well, here you go! This is a DVD the way we like it: diverse and multi-faceted, featuring a musical cross-section of the GAMMA RAY albums recorded by the current line-up since 1998. The road movie speaks for itself, and those nice little extras are great mementoes of our band history to date."
The DVD's humorous subtitle "� And The Finnish Keyboarder Who Didn't Want To Wear His Donald Duck Costume�" refers to keyboardist Eero Kaukomies who plays in the GAMMA RAY cover band GUARDIANS OF MANKIND from Helsinki and who performed with GAMMA RAY during its entire American tour. Hansen explained: "During the tour, Henjo suddenly noticed that Eero has a somewhat duck-like walk. So the crazy idea developed to make him wear a Donald Duck costume at the show in Montreal and present him to the audience. Naturally, this great suggestion didn't meet with much enthusiasm from Eero, and the whole thing became a running gag." Hansen added with a wink: "By the way, the 'awesome foursome' refers to Henjo, Dirk, Daniel and myself, in case you were wondering."
GAMMA RAY will travel to Russia at the beginning of September and is scheduled to tour America and Canada this fall. And the rest of the year? "We are collecting ideas for our next studio album," Hansen revealed. "Quite a few of them have already piled up, so come autumn we will probably begin to sort through them and go to the studio in January 2009."
Track Listing � DVD:
DVD 1 � Montreal Show 2006
01. Welcome
02. Gardens Of The Sinner
03. New World Order
04. Man On A Mission
05. Fight
06. Blood Religion
07. Heavy Metal Universe
08. Dreamhealer
09. The Heart Of The Unicorn
10. Fairytale
11. The Silence
12. Beyond The Blackhole
13. Valley Of The Kings
14. Somewhere Out In Space
15. Land Of The Free
16. Rebellion In Dreamland
17. I Want Out
18. Send Me A Sign
DVD 2
Road Movie:
* Documentary from the Northamerican Tour
Video Clips:
* Space Eater
* One With The World
* Gamma Ray
* Rebellion In Dreamland
* Send Me A Sign
* Heavy Metal Universe
* Eagle
* Into The Storm
Live At Wacken Open Air 2003
* One With The World
* Last Before The Storm
Live At Wacken Open Air 2006
* Rebellion In Dreamland
* Heavy Metal Universe
* Somewhere Out In Space
Historay: Over the years private movies, backstage scenes and live performances
Unplugged: Kai and Henjo unplugged in Japan
DVD 3 (Bonus, only Europe)
Four songs from "Land Of The Free II" recorded live in Barcelona during the "Hellish Rock" tour with HELLOWEEN in January 2008:
01. Into The Storm
02. Empress
03. From The Ashes
04. Real World
Plus Backstage scenes, soundchecks, etc...
Track Listing CD:
CD 1
01. Welcome
02. Gardens Of The Sinner
03. New World Order
04. Man On A Mission
05. Fight
06. Blood Religion
07. Heavy Metal Universe
08. Dreamhealer
09. The Heart Of The Unicorn
10. Fairytale
11. The Silence
CD 2
01. Beyond The Blackhole
02. Valley Of The Kings
03. Somewhere Out In Space
04. Land Of The Free
05. Rebellion In Dreamland
06. I Want Out
07. Send Me A Sign
Bonus Tracks:
08. Into The Storm
09. Empress
10. From The Ashes
11. Real World
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