Power metal vocalist and co-founder of both Helloween and Gamma Ray, Kai Hansen‘s new solo album Born With A Hammer is out now through earMUSIC.
Clocking in at nearly eight minutes, title track ‘Born With A Hammer’ is the album’s centrepiece and has been described as Hansen‘s very own ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’: an expansive, metal epic that follows its own dramatic arc and brings the different facets of his musical personality together in a single song.
This freedom is said to shape the entire album. Across ten songs, Hansen combines powerful heavy metal, punk attitude, driving hard rock and strong melodies with unexpected details, without ever losing sight of his own sound.
Produced by Eike Freese, Kai Hansen and Alexander Dietz, the album was recorded with Eike Freese on guitar, Alexander Dietz of Heaven Shall Burn on bass, Carcass drummer Dan Wilding and Induction guitarist Tim Hansen. The result is an album that carries Hansen‘s musical history within it without being defined by that history.
Three singles were issued prior to the album being released, ‘Wait And See’ being the most recent, one with a subtle electronic pulse running underneath it while still being one of the harder and more forceful songs on Born With A Hammer.
It was accompanied by a new video built from footage captured during a trip to Slovakia. Away from the usual stage setting, it shows Hansen driving a Mustang, travelling through the country and spending time in the studio, offering a rare, more personal glimpse of the person behind the music.
Prior to that was the ‘Welcome To Life’ single that’s about accepting life as it is, not dwelling on what is missing and making the most of what you have. The official lyric video brings this idea to life as a Mustang tears through a heightened, hell-tinged world. Its imagery follows the song’s shifting dynamics and puts its sense of freedom firmly on the road.
‘Feeding The Beast’ was the first single from the album, which is available in various formats.
Born With A Hammer‘s full tracklisting is: ‘Feeding The Beast’, ‘Welcome To Life’, ‘Don’t Care’, ‘Wait And See’, ‘Born With A Hammer’, ‘I.D.G.A.F.’, ‘End Of The Road’, ‘Triple Trouble’, ‘Invaders’ and ‘Wonderland’.
Read more about Kai Hansen on RAMzine.
