Following up to their 2003 live album, ‘Skeletons In The Closet’, German Power Metal legends GAMMA RAY are back with their latest live offering, ‘Hell Yeah!!! The Awesome Foursome (And The Finnish Keyboarder Who Didn’t Want To Wear His Donald Duck Costume)‘. Quite a mouthful, isn’t it?! This album was recorded on the bands first headline tour of North America in the city of Montreal, Canada, on the triumphant ‘Majestic’ album tour. As with their previous effort, this is a very professional release and had it not been for the crowd interactivity between the band and the crowd at times, this sounds like it could have been recorded in a studio – however, don’t get the wrong impression, there’s no obvious overdubs here.

Contained on this live double disc set are some of GAMMA RAY’s classic tracks from their back catalogue including ‘Gardens of The Sinner’, ‘The Heart of The Unicorn’, ‘Heavy Metal Universe’, ‘Valley of The Kings’, ‘New World Order’, ‘Land of The Free’ and ‘Rebellion In Dreamland’, along with HELLOWEEN anthem ‘I Want Out’. Along with these tracks and the main set from Montreal, are four bonus live tracks from latest studio album ‘Land of The Free Pt 2′. These include opening pair ‘Into The Storm’ and ‘From The Ashes’ whilst ‘Empress’ and ‘Real World’ are thrown in too. These tracks sound extremely good played live and offer a worthy alternative to the studio versions.

Clocking in at over two hours, this is great package for the GAMMA RAY faithful out there, as well as serving as a great introduction to new fans of the band too. There is also a 3 DVD version of the set available, which not only includes the footage of the live set from Montreal, but also features music videos from different stages of the bands career, along with a behind the scenes featurette from the North American tour, and if that wasn’t enough, there’s more. There is two live tracks from the Wacken Open Air festival from 2003 and 2006, as well as 4 live songs and a road movie from the Hellish Rock tour which took place in Spain earlier this year.

So how does it compare with ‘Skeletons From The Closet’? Well for starters, I think its better, the sound is better and crisper and theres no obvious sign of a drum solo on here, which we all know German bands love to include in live sets. This is a good sign for me, as I can get very bored by these and although it may look good live, on a CD set, you cannot see it and be awe inspired by how good the drummer is, and ultimately these segments will end up being skipped the majority of the time by the listener. For GAMMA RAY fans, this double live set is essential listening.

Rating: 4.4/5.0

Release Date: 17th November 2008