Helloween and Gamma Ray, Arenele Romane, 16.03.13

It’s hard to keep up with Gamma Ray and Helloween and charm an audience that is waiting for your concert to pass quickly so that they get to the goodies of the show, but Shadowside seemed to have had issues with keeping the audience alert no matter the circumstances, they were most boring. I always try to keep my eye rolling to a minimum during opening acts because I want to be supportive of a band that’s just getting started and probably has tons of butterflies in the stomach, but this time I just couldn’t. They were that bad… And when they decided to butcher Ace of spades in an effort to gain the public’s good will, it was even worse.

Gamma Ray was everything I expected them to be. Energetic, fun, scream-generating old school power metal, that made me bounce around and headbang like crazy (even though I had a bad cold and felt like shit for the rest of the day, I completely forgot about it once they got on stage, now *that*s a good show!). Kai wasn’t in the best shape ever, he really struggled with the high notes, but he made up for it with his contagious good mood. He’s such a cheerful fellow and he’s almost always goofing around and enjoying himself. The audience was just as happy and excited, clapping the whole time and chanting Gamma Ray during breaks.

Helloween was just as kick-ass, or maybe even more, as Andy gave a better vocal performance (better is an understatement, actually, he was excellent. He had a few moments when his voice cracked, but apparently he was sick and if that’s how the man sounds like when he’s sick…). I’m gonna go ahead and be blasphemous and say that I like Deris more then I ever liked Kiske. I know Kiske is the iconic Helloween singer that the fans will never get over, but I relate more to Deris’ metallic sound, it’s more badass and less cheesy „let’s join hands and sing together” power metal style. Also, he’s a great frontman, that communicated perfectly with the audience and was very entertaining to watch. He’s always acting like he’s telling a story to his grandkids or something 🙂  

Loved the guitarist trying to catch picks (I think they were picks) with his mouth :)) I was also very glad to see Gamma Ray back on stage for I want out, it’s always so refreshing to see two bands who are somewhat in a competition showing friendship and joking around. And it was also a nice treat for the audience. Everything sounded terrific and the atmosphere was fiery and oh my God they sung If I could fly and I though I was going to die of happiness. It’s great how they can have such heartfelt ballads like this one and Hold me in your arms and then go right ahead to badass Straight out of hell and catchy Eagle fly free and wacky Dr. Stein. They’re such a versatile band and the setlist was perfectly picked to show that. And they sung If I could fly, did I mention that? Did i mention it was the best moment of the night? Did I mention I completely adored it? I’m gonna just shut up now…