Freedom Call- Beyond

Freedom Call were one of my favorites during my late 90s/early 2000s power metal obsession. The last album I bought, though, was 2002's Eternity. I got bored with the band and the genre.

I have, however, checked out tunes or full albums each time they release one. Nothing has really grabbed me. Despite that, as usual, I checked out Beyond on Spotify yesterday, and I am actually quite enjoying it. I've listened to it a couple times.

I don't forsee buying the album or anything, and it will probably just get a few listens this week while it is new to me and then I'll forget about it. But that's more than any other FC release in the past 10 years has enjoyed. Pretty fun power metal though.

The first two are pretty much benchmarks for upbeat German power IMO, easily up there with most Gamma Ray or Helloween. Also unique vocals, great riff structure, melodic leads, good tones. I liked 'Eternity' and 'Circle of Life' and then everything after that ranges from a few good songs to a total disaster. I wasn't taken by the single from this because to me it sounded just like the pop junk that was on the last record...but there are also a lot of good reviews, so who knows....

Pretty much what OCI said. They fell into the morass of generic euro power metal.

I'm not sure which song is the single, but I've enjoyed the whole record.

Speaking of Gamma Ray, they are one classic band from the genre I've never really explored. The only album I ever bought was...damn, I forget the title. It had a song about how he loves going to the movies, with a chorus something like "Free time! It's one of the things that I love! Free time! It's one of the things I enjoy!"

Maybe I'll do some Spotify Gamma Ray exploration today.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

I'm not sure which song is the single, but I've enjoyed the whole record.

Speaking of Gamma Ray, they are one classic band from the genre I've never really explored. The only album I ever bought was...damn, I forget the title. It had a song about how he loves going to the movies, with a chorus something like "Free time! It's one of the things that I love! Free time! It's one of the things I enjoy!"

Maybe I'll do some Spotify Gamma Ray exploration today.

Its from their debut, which is my favourite, but my taste is slightly weird. Check out Land of the Free.

Okay, I didn't very much dig that "Union Of The Strong" single but this title track (Beyond) I like. This is very strong. Excellent stuff.

New album is really good. They kind of went back to the style of the first 2 or 3 albums. I got the box set last week. I wasn't expecting too much from it. I saw the boxset on amazon pretty reasonable for a box set so I just got it. Glad I did.

BearOnUnicycle wrote:

ZombieHavoc wrote:

I'm not sure which song is the single, but I've enjoyed the whole record.

Speaking of Gamma Ray, they are one classic band from the genre I've never really explored. The only album I ever bought was...damn, I forget the title. It had a song about how he loves going to the movies, with a chorus something like "Free time! It's one of the things that I love! Free time! It's one of the things I enjoy!"

Maybe I'll do some Spotify Gamma Ray exploration today.

Its from their debut, which is my favourite, but my taste is slightly weird. Check out Land of the Free.

Yep. That one and/or Somewhere out in Space.

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

New album is really good. They kind of went back to the style of the first 2 or 3 albums. I got the box set last week. I wasn't expecting too much from it. I saw the boxset on amazon pretty reasonable for a box set so I just got it. Glad I did.

It's $14.04 on Amazon. Stupidly good price for what it comes with.



A bonus CD, a poster, and a 44-page, full color hardcover book.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H2KRSRO

I had $18



....Annnnnd it's gone

Got this in the mail the other day, first of all this box is ridiculous. The hardcover book thing explaining what "Beyond" is all about is outstanding. The poster is two-sided. I don't care about the live bonus thing because it's mostly songs from the last album that I thought were kind of not good, but still the fact that all this is being sold at regular CD price, I don't know how the label is pulling this off.

Now this album itself...The title track is, uh, *beyond* outstanding. The general feel of the record is trying to be squarely in the earlier sound of the band, sometimes it succeeds and sometimes it doesn't. People don't realize sometimes, but there is always solid and memorable heavy metal riffing grounding the old stuff this band has. See: Graceland, Flying High, Freedom Call, etc..they have always been closer to Gamma Ray than Rhapsody in terms of this kind of power metal, and had riffs just as good. Some of the stuff on here though is very chorus oriented and I'm missing the riffs. Those also tend to be the filler songs. There are 14 tracks, which sometimes is cool, sometimes not. I would be ok if there were 10 instead. Chris' vocals sound awesome and the leads are still total rock 'n roll, another thing I always liked about this band was the refusal to have the typical ultra-shred gee whiz metal soloing. Some other strong tracks: Heart of a Warrior, Among the Shadows, Colours of Freedom. Wouldn't recommend the album if you're just getting into the band (I would say the first 4) but if you want something from them that isn't stuck in feces-land, for a good price, get it...