THe music on this CD is top notch. Everysong goes well into the next and Kai Hansen sings with such emotion and in so many different styles that it is no wonder he is the inspiration for a lot of bands. The story is awesome and presented very well. I have heard a lot of concept albums in my time and this is one of the greats. No filler tracks, every single song has a purpose on the cd.

IF you do not walk away from this Cd with the words "WOW" then you are prolly not gonna like much else in this genre.

Gamma Ray is always doing epic music but they never rely on crutches of their past. They are willing to experiment and change things up a bit, sometimes it works and others it doesn't. However you will not get the impression that they are just rehashing old stuff and calling it new like some other metal bands.

Definatly one of their best if not thee best.

I purchased this title last year and I love it. The order of the songs are nicely placed and every song has meaning. "Goodbye my friends, I am leaving you today.. My quest is hard, but I must be on my way". Rebellion in Dreamland is one of the best songs Gamma Ray ever done. Gods of Deliverence, Salvation's Calling, Time to Break Free ; they all have the power to make you move your fingers just to see if you can keep up with the Guitar. And the Big Finale of Afterlife. Noone can arrange an album that well. I expect No World Order to be much powerful than what Gamma Ray has ever done.. 5 Star goes out to you boys.

Gamma Ray's finest hour! One more milestone of Power Metal after Helloween's Keeper albums! Hansen blows all his competition and Helloween clones out of the water with this one.

Kai Hansen returns with his majestic riffing, crazy leads, insane-fast solos and he is also back on vocals! Don't think for a second that this is a drawback, he has improved a lot since the recording of Walls Of Jericho. His vocals are more worked, clearer and still possess the strength to produce high pitched screams! The rest of the band is in really great form especially the drummer, who almost never lifts his foot off the double bass and pounds his tombs like crazy.

The arrangements are of epic proportions reminding of past glories and at some parts even surpassing them. The guest appearances of Michael Kiske and Hansi Kursch on 3 tracks add extra points to the brilliance of this release and remind you of the classic 80's Helloween era!

"Rebellion In Dreamland" starts of the album in a ballad form picking up speed as it progresses. Mind blowing riffs and solos, tempo changes and a really powerful chorus make this track a masterpiece and the most epic song that Gamma Ray ever put out! "Man On A Mission" comes next, reaching insane speeds which bring to mind good old speed metal. It is comprised of fantasy lyrics, a smart chorus and fast soloing (the song reminds me of 'Save Us' from Keeper II). "Fairytale" follows, an incredible pounding track which only lasts for 50 seconds and leaves you wanting more! After a short instrumental break comes "Gods Of Deliverance" and is mainly maintained by it's catchy chorus and Kai's vocals, a nice track. The next two tracks are nothing special as one of them is a ballad; a field were Gamma Ray were never really good at and the other being a faster track but with nothing special to give.

"Land Of The Free" follows; which is definitely the second best masterpiece of the album (after Rebellion In Dreamland). Great riffs, one of the best choruses Hansen has ever written and the guest appearance of both Kiske and Kursch on the chorus will surely make you shiver. Add some solo battles and Kiske's vocals at the song's majestic ending and you have a classic tune! After another short instrumental comes "Abyss Of The Void", another strong track with nice vocals by Kai, followed by "Time To Break Free" which is sang entirely by Kiske and it is a catchy heavy metal track. "Afterlife" is the last track, a power ballad type song dedicated to Ingo Schwichtenberg (Helloween's drummer 1985-1993), a strange track with deep lyrics.

In my opinion this album together with Helloween's Keeper albums are a must have concerning European power metal and they are also linked together musically and lyric wise. These records paved the way for all the rest of the bands that followed and their glory and musical perfection has never been reached.

Will be love by Helloween, Blind Guardian, Stratovarius and power metal fans in general.

In 1995, the legendary German Power Metal band Gamma Ray released Land Of The Free, a seminal album for both the band and the genre that has since gone on to be thought of fondly as a classic, and which remains one of the fan's favourite Gamma Ray albums. It was one of the band's most commercially and critically successful albums too, coming at just the right time in Heavy Metal's timeline to catch an anti-grunge zeitgeist of fans who missed this sort of music.

After three albums with singer Ralf Scheepers (who left to try and join Judas Priest, and later formed Primal Fear); Kai Hansen, who was already the band's guitarist and primary songwriter, stepped up to take over the now vacant lead vocals position. A position Kai had not held full-time in a band since Helloween's 1985 debut record Walls Of Jericho a decade earlier.

In addition to Kai; Michael Kiske, the former lead singer of Helloween, who had worked with Kai on their incredibly influential and beloved Keeper Of The Seven Keys albums, provides guest vocals on two tracks. Furthermore Hansi Kürsch of Blind Guardian provides guest vocals on three tracks.

Musically, the album is a masterpiece. It has just the right blend of all of the band's influences and stylistic leanings, and has become for many fans the definitive Gamma Ray album. The direction, performances and lyrics of the album are all huge, overblown, over the top and bursting out of the speakers. The harmonies are big, the solos are blistering, the choruses are memorable, and when the band thrash, they thrash hard.

The first two tracks alone, the progressive `Rebellion In Dreamland' and the absolutely furious `Man On A Mission' are two of the best tracks that the band ever written.

The rest of the album is just as exciting; the standard of lead guitar is really something special, the additional tasteful keys from multi-instrumentalist/producer Sascha Paeth add a great tone and additional depth to the songs, the production perfectly serves the music perfectly and the band manage to come up with a diverse collection of songs that covers enough ground to stay fresh and interesting throughout, but with enough commonalities to flow cohesively.

If you like bands like Rainbow, Queen, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest as well as early Helloween, this album should stimulate a lot of those parts of your brain, sonically referencing them, without at this point directly ripping them off (something the band would later get accused of on subsequent records).

Its difficult to hear energetic and entertaining tracks like `Gods Of Deliverance,' and `Time To Break Free' or indeed the emotional progressive ballad `Farewell' (about Helloween drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg's suicide) and not be captivated. This is simply one of those albums that's better than the sum of its parts and has that extra something that makes it a classic.

No fan of the band, or any band Kai Hansen has been involved in, should be without this record. I highly recommend it to fans of Power Metal, as well as to any general Metal fans at all, if you love ambitious compositions, energy, conviction and virtuosity then you should at least give it a chance.

Although the theme is a little bit childish, the songs are mended in a glorious way. THis is the first Gammar Ray record with Kai Hansen on vocals and, even considering that he's not a singer, but a guitar player who sings, it sounds great!!!