If you had a material with no light passing through it, then you shined a light through it, it would only move at the group velocity. The whole "faster than light" thing refers to the phase velocity, but you can't have a phase velocity if the light hasn't gotten there yet.
Saying that gamma rays (or any light in general) moves faster than light is technically true but very misleading and relies heavily on when you define "speed" as.
3Blue1Brown has a good video on why the phase velocity is different from the group velocity if you're interested in why. The faster than light phase velocity happens when the "phase kicks" are so delayed that the phase appears to move forward.