Power metal bands these days are ten to a penny with new bands popping up daily, but talented and original ones like Germany’s ‘Freedom Call’ are hard to find. They formed in 1998 when Gamma Ray (main band of then-members Nils and Dan) were going through a rough patch, toured with Hammerfall and Blind Guardian before doing a headlining tour in 2005. Now on their sixth album the future is looking good.
The first track ‘Out of the Ruins’ has a fast tempo guitar riff and a steady drumming pattern that’s just enough to get your feet tapping, plus some impressive vocal harmonies. ‘Thunder God,’ with its catchy, almost 80s hair metal guitar riffs and fancy pinch harmonics, have vocals that sound a little like Bruce Dickenson, while with its epic intro and cheesy melodic group vocals, ‘Merlin Legend of the Past’ is definitely one of the catchiest and most impressive tracks on the album.
The powerful ‘Resurrection Day’ sounds very much like Finnish power metal, with the drumming pattern and guitar work reminding me of Nightwish’s earlier material. ‘Ludwig II Prologue,’ a track just over two minutes long, has an impressive intro with church bells ringing and some German vocals with some slow marching drum beats and following that, to lighten up the mood, some high pitched vocals with the album title track ‘The Shadowking’.
‘Merlin – Requiem’ is the ballad of the album with heartfelt lyrics; ‘ I’ll be there out of infinity, I’ll be there when you’re alone in darkness, whenever you are falling,’ but then you also have some lyrics that are Manowar-worthy in; ‘Merlin a legend of the past, foretold the story of two dragons, fighting for the lands, his name will live forever.’ The album ends with the track ‘Perfect Day’ a happy, folky, jig-along track that makes you want to sing along like you’re with a big group of merry drunkards swinging your mead horns.
All in all I was quite taken with this album. With 14 tracks, Freedom Call aren’t stingy and have obviously busted their backsides on this. The production is clear, lyrics are quite inspiring at times and the vocals are amazing. Taking you on a journey of gods and legends, this is definitely an album I would recommend and it seems much stronger than their previous releases. Two thumbs up for this gem of an album!
http://www.myspace.com/callforfreedom
http://www.freedom-call.net/
