Freedom Call
“Crystal Empire”
(SPV)
“Strangers in the night/ rising up to fight” thus sings Freedom Call’s vocalist in a falsetto that makes every line sound as if it’s loaded with great significance. Freedom Call are immaculate musicians like many of these European power metal bands, and like their brethren I feel hard pressed to give a bad review because you can hear their determined passion and true love for the music they are playing even though it’s totally lacking in general creativity and feels free to suck at the remains of such bands as Gamma Ray or Helloween, who themselves were more than a touch taken by the sounds of Iron Maiden. The production on “Crystal Empire” is typically crystal clear with razor sharp drum beats that aren’t piled on too thick as to obscure the joyful interplay of guitar and keyboards. And that’s one of the tricks of this kind of heavy metal is that it seems ever playful and joyous, never calls for the fans full attention and achieves its utmost levels of hilarity by always taking itself seriously. Freedom Call does it all just right.
