GAMMA RAY guitarist/vocalist Kai Hansen has issued the following in-depth update on the band's current activities:

"Dear Friends,

...it's been a while since you've had some news from the band and since there's been a lot of questions asked by many, we thought the time is right to give you an update from the Gamma Ray Camp.

About the DVD: the current status is that everything is ready so far, except for the 'Home Video' part of the Bonus section. We have made our way through quite a bit of tapes,CD's,DVD's etc., filmed by ourselves, friends, fans, crew and so on and there's a lot of material that had to be converted, cut and edited. Yesterday I spoke to the video company and they told me that it was on ice for two weeks because they had two other shootings to do, but we should get a viewing copy by the end of the week....let's see.This thing seems to be turning into a never ending story...sh*t, we just want to say 'done' now and announce a release date...which hopefully is going to be before summer.

About the new album: Good stuff growing there! We already have composed many tracks by me, Henjo, Dan and even Dirk came up with something. The current status is 14, from simple rockers to complex anthems, all with great melodies and heaviness. All songs have a very powerfull positive energy without being too clean and polished. The good old Hamburg Jaws are shining through all the way.

There might be even more to come and maybe we're put into the situation where we have to make a choice of what's gonna be on the album. We are constantly rehearsing and working on the demos to get the songs to our (and your..) total satisfaction. It might be a nice idea to organize a fanclub meeting at that time, play you the demos and get some feedback.....hmmm, what do you think? When we think we're ready, we'll start the production. We have pulled Tommy Newton aboard the ship to record the drums, bass and rhythm guitars. Dubs, solos etc we'll do ourselves, vocals I normally prefer to do just on my own firstly and then go over it again with someone else to make adjustments or decide between alternatives. The mix will be done by Tommy. He did a great job on the mix for the DVD and we totally trust him. The good thing is that this allows us to be just musicians and not worry about engineering, haha!

Anyhow, we plan to release the album in autumn, which leads us to ......

The next tour: Yes, there are negotiations about a tour with HELLOWEEN, but we can't give out too much now. It would start in November, take us through all countries including Europe, Japan, USA, Canada,and South America. We would play before Helloween with approx.75 min (even in places where we had more people on the last tour than they had; switching is not practicable), and there will be one or two support bands, in some places maybe even more, as a kind of festival thing. We all like the idea of united powers here and of cause the opportunity for some worldwide jams, but still this might as well not happen, as I said....we're negotiating.

About Kiske, Hansen, Grapow: another yes with a 'but'. We have met and want to do something together, so Roland and me will have to find time to write some good songs that are not too agressive for Michi,(.... you all know about his Metal-Phobia:). Musically it should be a bit out of the ordinary, which is good, I wouldn't want to write songs for this which I'd rather have for Gamma Ray. The 'when' is still open and of course we can only get into detail when we have the first tracks and are sure it's gonna be a great thing, or some project that ends up in eternal discussions about musical direction.

For now, there is only Gamma Ray on my 'to do' list (okay, okay except for a week of skiing I will allow myself, ....of course only to fill my lungs with fresh mountain air to sing even better :)

It's nine thirty in the morning, a nice sunny day in Hamburg and I'm off to the studio now to work on the end of a long track called 'Insurrection'. Who says musicians are lazy Bastards that sleep until afternoon....)

Big Cheeeeeerrzzzzz and Greeeeetzzzz from all The Rays."

Yours, Kai