Gamma Ray is a German power metal band formed in Hamburg in 1989 by guitarist, songwriter and vocalist Kai Hansen, who had co-founded Helloween but left in 1988. He assembled a new project with Ralf Scheepers, and the debut Heading for Tomorrow appeared in 1990. The Scheepers era produced three records that established Gamma Ray as a defining act of European power metal. Scheepers left in 1994-95 to pursue a Judas Priest opening (later founding Primal Fear). Instead of hiring a replacement, Hansen stepped up to the microphone. Land of the Free (1995) is widely regarded as the band's masterpiece. The lineup then stabilised around Henjo Richter, Dirk Schlächter and Dan Zimmermann, producing Somewhere Out in Space (1997) through To the Metal! (2010). Michael Ehré debuted on Empire of the Undead (2014). Gamma Ray has been largely dormant since, as Hansen rejoined Helloween for the "Pumpkins United" reunion, though he has confirmed Gamma Ray is not finished.
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