For over 30 years and with a total of eleven studio albums, the Hamburg-based power metal band built around band leader Kai Hansen has influenced and shaped the genre. The expressiveness of their music is also reflected in their energetic live shows, which was impressively captured on their long player “30 Years Live Anniversary” (2021).

In 1988, after four years with the German power metal band Helloween, guitarist and songwriter Kai Hansen decided to leave the group. Hansen claimed that Helloween had become too big for him to handle, although the group's troubles with financial issues and their record company, Noise Records, most likely played a part as well. He proceeded to do some studio work with German power metal band Blind Guardian and, in 1989, decided to form his own project with longtime friend Ralf Scheepers, former vocalist of the band Tyran Pace.

This two-man project grew into a four-man band with the addition of Uwe Wessel on bass and Mathias Burchardt on drums. This was the first lineup of Gamma Ray, bearing a sound understandably close to that of Helloween of that period.