Marita's Metal Mania: Gamma Ray - To The Metal!

Since I became a Rayniac, I'v been listening to Gamma Ray 24/7. Soon I'll have a complete record collection, and each record deserves a "Marita's Metal Mania". I think I'll start with "To The Metal!" from 2010.
"To The Metal!" is Gamma Rays tenth full length studio album. The album was recorded in Kai's own studio in Hamburg in autumn 2009. The band has recorded 12 songs. Ten of them were featured on the regular album release, while the other two were bonus tracks appearing on the different editions of the album.
The band described some of the songs on the official website, revealing that there would be a full-throttle number called "Rise", a rhythmic and melodically diverse song called "Time To Live", and a multilayered anthem titled "All you need to know", featuring ex-Helloween frontman Michael Kiske.
Other songs mentioned are "No Need to Cry", a song written by Dirk Schlächter about the death of his father, "To The Metal", a song they played on various festivals before the album release and the atmospherically and dense "Empathy". It's the last album featuring drummer Dan Zimmermann (wikipedia).

I love the whole album, and think it's really well done. It's powerful and heavy, great vocals and riffs, and you just can't play it without turning it up to eleven. (I know I'll write this about most of Rays albums - but fuck it - it's a great band with great albums!) My two favorite songs are "To The Metal" and "Empathy", but "All You Need To Know", "Time To Live", "Rise" and "Mother Angel" are also very great.

I'm gonna leave you with these lines from the song "To The Metal":

The power in the music
Arising in us all
We're never gonna lose it
We're proud and standing tall
Hail
I said hail

If you just can not feel it
You'll never understand
You're never gonna beat it
'Cause Metal rules the land
Hail