The artist: Starting off power metal month for March, we have Gamma Ray. They formed in 1988 when Kai Hansen wasn't happy with his time with Helloween. He may have been one of the founding members of Helloween but he struggled to fit in the band after a while and departed right after the tour for Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 2. He started the band with Ralf Scheepers who is known for being heavily influenced by Rob Halford for his singing style as well as forming Primal Fear later on after leaving Gamma Ray. When Ralf was gone, Kai Hansen was going to seek for a new vocalist but was advised to take care of singing himself, despite stepping down from vocals in Helloween to make way for Michael Kiske. Ever since it's been Kai Hansen on vocals.
The album: Power Plant is part of the classic trio for Gamma Ray starting with Land of the Free, followed by Somewhere Out in Space and this album. These three albums are fan favourites for the majority. Power Plant is just as good as Land of the Free and would have been a perfect album had it not been for that out of place cover of It's a Sin by Pet Shop Boys. Putting that aside, Power Plant is full of excellent Gamma Ray songs such as Anywhere in the Galaxy, Gardens of the Sinner, Armageddon and Strangers in the Night. It's a highly recommended album for metal fans, unless power metal isn't your cup of coffee.
The song: Hand of Fate starts with a piano intro followed by the band striking at full force after the first lyric section making it a very impressive intro overall for the song. The song is about the dark lord returning from hell to wreck havoc on earth. Many soldiers are fighting this demon and do what they can to send him back to hell. 10,000 men pray for the "hand of fate" to take down the dark lord once and for all. With a song full of great riffs, a marching feel of a chorus and a section launching several solos together, it's easy to call it high class power metal. The only thing that can be brought up for concern is the outro which sounds like we're on another song. Maybe the band originally had it planned to be an interlude track between Hand of Fate and Armageddon but changed it the last minute. Either way, Hand of Fate is still an excellent song provided by Gamma Ray.
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