GAMMA RAY ANNOUNCE 25th ANNIVERSARY REISSUE OF "INSANITY & GENIUS"
"Insanity & Genius" (Anniversary Edition) will be released on May 06th, 2016 on earMUSIC.
25 years of Gamma Ray – 25 years of heavy metal from Hamburg: what started out in spring 1990 with the release of their debut album “Heading For Tomorrow” has achieved international fame a quarter of a century later. Tours around the globe with sold-out shows in the US, Canada, South America, Asia and the whole of Europe plus appearances at the most renowned festivals worldwide – vocalist/guitarist Kai Hansen’s band has long taken the world by storm.
In view of this impressive stocktaking on the occasion of their anniversary, there’s a special reason to rejoice for their international fan community: the band’s full back catalogue will be rereleased over the course of a year. All albums will be available as premium-quality digipaks including newly designed cover artwork.
To cut a long story short: Gamma Ray are celebrating their anniversary in style, and all their fans are invited!
Their third studio album “Insanity & Genius”, which arrived at the stores in late summer 1993, presented Gamma Ray from an even tougher and more experimental side than their 1991 predecessor release “Sigh No More” had done.
On top of that, an incisive line-up change had taken place in the Gamma Ray camp during the run-up to the production: drummer Uli Kusch and bassist Uwe Wessel had left due to personal differences and were replaced by Jan Rubach (bass) and Thomas Nack (drums), formerly of Lübeck band Anesthesia.
Bassist Jan Rubach immediately contributed compositional inspiration and his remarkable songwriting skills, penning the title track and sections of the opener ´Tribute To The Past`, among others. Thomas Nack’s powerful drum style brought a fresh feel to Gamma Ray’s material, taking the band to occasionally almost brutal levels of hardness on “Insanity And Genius”.
”Insanity And Genius” was a commercial success particularly in the Far East and the top-selling Gammy Ray album in Japan with almost 100,000 copies sold, missing a gold award by a hair’s breadth. It was also the final studio recording featuring singer Ralf Scheepers, who left in 1994 to launch Primal Fear, Kai Hansen going on to replace him as the group’s lead vocalist.
The 2016 anniversary re-release of Insanity & Genius includes, along with the eleven original tracks remastered by producer/sound engineer Eike Freese (Dark Age, Deep Purple), additional demo material of ´Money`, ´The Silence` and ´Sail On`, an extended version of ´Gamma Ray` and a rough mix of ´Space Eater`, plus the Judas Priest cover ´Exciter` as well as live interpretations of ´Valley Of The Kings` and ´Heaven Can Wait`, which were recorded 2016 at the Chameleon Studios.