Customer Reviews

Sigh No More

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Kai Hansen & company didn't waste any time following up their 1990 debut album Heading for Tomorrow. 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 (Pink Bubbles Go Ape, 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. Land of the Free 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.

Ok,i am gonna explain something about this cd,why only give it one star? its very well played and i know they aint the best tracks in the world,but not only is this album experimental because Kai didn't want to completly [copy] his old band,but he didn't write all the songs by himself! most are written by/with other people,so dont blame kai,i think this album is quite good,and is very different but its good because its different,so if your a manic gamma ray fan like me,buy it,but if your looking for a good solid gamma ray cd,try 'land of the free' or 'no world order'

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!!

Each time I read some notes or opinioms about this record, everyone seems to say the same thing, "This is Gamma Ray's weakest effort". Although this is true at some extent, there is no such thing as a bad Gamma Ray album; they're all great, and this one is no exception. "Sigh no More" still has Kai Hansen's extraordinary lyrics and compositions, some good examples are the rather silly sounding "Rich & famous" (the chorus is reminiscent of Heloween's "Heavy Metal Hamsters", but the bridge simply takes your breath away.), "(We won't) Stop the war", "The Spirit" and "Start Running" are also examples of this bands speed factor, and, my personal favorite "One with the world" wich is just one of those tracks you can never stop listening to. "Father and son" is an excellent power ballad that gives the album a breathing space between the heavier and faster tracks, and "Dream Healer" can be considered as the epic song. All in all, if you're a Gamma Ray fan you'll probably enjoy this record; it's still not their best, but there is not one song on it that would make the album deserve less than 5 stars.

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 album should be called "Less Than Ourselves" This album is all filler and no killer. This is just a capitalization on popularity. Their last album "Heading for Tomorrow" made an impression on the world and so they wanted to make a HFT 2 and did a real bad job at it. I don't particuarlly like this album, but I gave it a three stars just for the effort of coming out with something they thought we'd like. I own it for the collection and I won't be listening to it less than I have the first time.

Well.. i couldn't believe what i saw !! most people grading it only 1 star !! i don't understand why they talked bad about it! it's not the best gamma ray album, not really, but it's very good !! the songs CHANGES, DREAM HEALER, OUT OF THE WORLD, they are very good. if you are a gamma ray fan you know that RALF SCHEEPERS sings very well. forget all the others said. i recommend this one.

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".

This is my first exposure to Gamma Ray and am duly impressed with the song writing, musicianship and vocals.

ok i'm going to preface this review by saying that i love GAMMA RAY. i've been a fan of theirs for years. with that being said, i came into listening to the band with the album "somewhere out in space", and those that followed. it was only recently that i had gotten into listening to their really early stuff. up to this point the earliest album i had listened to was "insanity and genius". so i took a chance and got "sigh no more", hoping that i would hear the blistering metal that i'd heard on the newer albums or even during kai's tenure with helloween. unfortunately i got neither. what i did get was a very boring album with uninspired songs and songwriting. this is more a hard rock album than a metal one and sounds nothing like any of the other GR albums i'd heard before it. there are really no memorable, or even good, tunes here. i couldnt even get through 2 listens. it's not a grower of a cd, it's just BAD.
if you want a good gamma ray cd, try these, LAND OF THE FREE, SOMEWHERE OUT IN SPACE, POWERPLANT, NO WORLD ORDER, MAJESTIC, LAND OF THE FREE 2......any of these would be a much more satisfying listen than this album.