Kai Hansen & company didn't waste any time following up their 1990 debut album

. Sophomore album Sigh No More was released just one year later.

Listening to Sigh No More 15 years after its original release, you can understand where the band was coming from and picture them trying to define the Gamma Ray sound and perhaps distinguish it from that of Hansen's first band Helloween. At the time though, and after a very Helloween-like debut, you can see how this album might have come as a shock. Sigh No More is less epic and melodic than its predecessor, and is a good deal more aggressive and raw. Still, it's a decent album, and is definitely a Kai Hansen album. Besides, it holds up a lot better than what Helloween was dishing out at the time (

, anyone?).

I suppose it goes without saying that Gamma Ray would appeal to Helloween fans. Fans of the more recent power metal bands like Sonata Arctica, Freedom Call, Edguy and Hammerfall also owe it to themselves to check out Gamma Ray, though Sigh No More is probably not the best album to start with.

is your best intro to Gamma Ray.

Edition Notes: The 2003 reissue of Sigh No More features digitally remastered sound, three bonus tracks ("Heroes," "Who Do You Think You Are" and an extra-long pre-production version of "Dream Healer"). It comes in a pretty cheap-looking digipack, but aside from that it's a nice upgrade that pushes a 3-star album into 4-star territory.

PS: If you can find one, there is a very cool (but very limited) box set that collects all six of the remastered Gamma Ray albums.

I am sure this is the best pure and raw heavy metal way of expression Gamma Ray can get. They are playing very simple in this album. Yet, this is one of the best way to know that Gamma Ray can do a lot with a few!! Dream Healer is the longer and most refined song. Very beautiful... My favorite song is The Spirit, it has one of the most lyrics that Gamma Ray ever made. All over the album you can feel a lot of influence from Judas Priest, but Gamma Ray always let its mark in every song!!

Sigh No More is yet another strong cd from Gamma Ray.I give this one 4 stars only because i think Insanity & Genius is the best Ralf Scheepers cd.The opening track is good as is with all openers,to me the strong tracks on this one is Dream Healer and The Spirit a close second.All the others are good but those two stand out.You can't go wrong buying this cd just make sure u buy the remastered edition with the bonus tracks.

This Cd sucks. It's like Kai Hansen is not thu guitar player in this record. It's very, very bad. Maybe he was trying his way after leaving Helloween, and the result was catastrophic. There's not one good song in this CD. This is not Gamma Ray. Gamma Ray is "Insanity and Genius", "Land of The Free", "Powerplant".

Sigh No More is the second full-length studio album by the legendary German Power Metal band Gamma Ray. It was released in 1991, just one year after the band's debut.

As with the band's debut the vocals on this album are handled by Ralf Scheepers (later of Primal Fear) as opposed to Kai himself, who took over vocal duties on the band's fourth album.

Dirk Schlächter, who had been a guest bassist on their debut, joined the band properly as a guitarist and Uli Kusch became the band's new drummer.

Musically and lyrically, it is very different than every other Gamma Ray album. The lyrics are less fantasy based and cover topics like the Gulf War, and the music goes the furthest away from the Keeper Of The Seven Keys formula that Kai Hansen has ever been since before those albums were written. It seems as though the band were trying to carve their own niche and escape Helloween comparisons at this point, before finally just giving in and giving the fans what they want with later albums.

On one or two songs, you even get an almost Glam/Early-90s Hard Rock influence audible.

Just because the music is different however, doesn't mean that it isn't good. `Rich And Famous' for example is one of the best Gamma Ray songs out there, `The Spirit' is exciting with its acoustic guitar over electric bass sections and memorable and `(We Won't) Stop The War' is very catchy even if they'd never write anything that sounds like it again.

The standard of lead guitar, the level of entertainment are and the memorable nature of the choruses are all equal to the standard that fans have come to expect from the band. This record simply adds a bit of variety to your Gamma Ray collection. Not that its even an unrecognizable departure anyway; tracks like `As Time Goes By' and `Start Running' still sound like Judas Priest after all. I suppose its really just the `grand' and `epic' part of the sound that is missing.

Overall; Sigh No More is a very good album, that shouldn't be overlooked just because it doesn't fit into the band's signature formula. There are some fine songs on it and it's a very entertaining album in its own right. If you like the band you should at least give it a try.