Kai Hansen has released “Welcome To Life“, the second song to surface from Born With A Hammer, his first solo album in a decade.
The record arrives September 18 through earMUSIC. It follows XXX – Three Decades In Metal, issued in 2016 under the Hansen & Friends banner.
“Welcome To Life” sits second on the tracklist, directly after lead single “Feeding The Beast“. It works a mix of heavy metal, punk and rock ‘n’ roll, built on tempo shifts and melodic hooks rather than sustained speed.
The lyrics deal with taking life as it comes, not fixating on what is absent, and using what is there instead.
An official lyric video accompanies the release, following a Mustang through a hellish landscape, with the visuals tracking the song’s changes in pace.
Taken together with “Feeding The Beast“, the two singles point to an album that moves across styles rather than settling into one.
Eike Freese produced, with Hansen and Alexander Dietz also credited on the most recent announcement.
The recording lineup features Freese on guitar, Dietz of Heaven Shall Burn, Carcass drummer Dan Wilding, and Tim Hansen of Induction on guitar.
Dietz and Wilding are not new arrivals. Both played on XXX – Three Decades In Metal a decade ago, making this the second Hansen solo project they have worked on together.
Hansen co-founded Helloween and wrote much of the material that established European power metal as a form, before leaving to start Gamma Ray and spending three decades building that catalogue.
He rejoined Helloween for the reunion lineup that brought together members from across the band’s history, a run that produced new studio work and extensive international touring.
Born With A Hammer is his return to material under his own name. Ten songs, roughly 45 minutes, issued on CD digipak with a four-page booklet alongside other formats.
Born With A Hammer Tracklist:
- “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”
- “Wonderland”
