We feel so bad about having ripped on Kai Hansen (not on one, but two albums that feature him) in this issue that we thought it would be only fair to say something nice about the man.
At least at some point in Hansen's metal career, he was writing some fantastic music. It all begins with Helloween's first album, Walls of Jericho, which is packaged on CD with the five tracks from the Helloween EP. The material found on this album is largely different from the kind of sound that is more commonly associated with Helloween (the oft-copied melodic Euro double bass riffs with happy, sing-songy choruses.) Rather, the style here is of rough, yet melodic 80s style heavy metal.
Think of the kind of busting-at-the-seams thrash energy found on Metallica's first album, but add power metal flamboyance in the form of more caloric guitar solos and drum work, then throw in the kind of energy largely found on Iron Maiden's first two albums and you've got in a nutshell what Walls of Jericho sounds like.
In the days before the phenomenal voice of Michael Kiske joined the band, Kai Hansen doubled as singer and guitartist. Hansen's high-pitched vocals often seem to be on the verge of going out of control, but he somehow holds it all together with a performance that aptly complements the gangbusters approach of the music.
There is no doubt that there's a great deal of cheesiness to be found on this album, like the melody of "London Bridge is Falling Down" serving as the intro to a song, and a whole bunch of tunes which are simply about how great metal is (like the live cut of "Heavy Metal (Is the Law)" in which the crowd really gets into it, singing along in its pride). However, this brand of cheesiness is not of the wussy, contemporary Euro power metal band variety, but rather of the kind that simply goes with the territory of being "true" metal, and in fact makes it all the more cool.
Walls of Jericho is certainly a lock for one of the 10 best heavy metal albums of all time. Considering this in light of Gamma Ray's latest albums, what on Earth has happened to Kai Hansen?
