Recky
Senior Member
I must be part magpie, cause I was flicking through a recent Classic Rock mag and a nice shiny band logo caught my eye...turns out it was a german "power metal" band, and I do love my power metal, called Freedom Call...I went for a hunt and saw a gig on you tube and got a couple of songs and have since ordered some stuff...fave songs thus far - Age of Power, Hero Nation, Hymn to the brave and Flying high (among others) and they do a real crash hot cover of Stratovarious's "Hunting high and low"
Lineup
Chris Bay – Vocals & Guitar (1998–present)
Lars Rettkowitz – Guitar (2005–present)
Samy Saemann – Bass (2009–present)
Klaus Sperling – Drums (2010–present)
Former Members
Dan Zimmermann – Drums (1998–2010)
Sascha Gerstner – Guitar (1998–2001)
Cédric "Cede" Dupont – Guitar (2001–2005)
Ilker Ersin – Bass (1998–2005)
Nils Neumann – Keyboards (2003–2006)
Armin Donderer – Bass (2005–2009)
Eero Kaukomies – Live keyboards (2006)
Dirk Schlächter – Live keyboards (1999–2000)
Albums
Stairway to Fairyland (1999)
Crystal Empire (2001)
Eternity (2002)
The Circle of Life (2005)
Dimensions (2007)
Legend of the Shadowking (2010)
Land of the Crimson Dawn (2012)
Beyond (2014)
Master of Light (2016)
M.E.T.A.L. (2019)
Silver Romance (2024)
Freedom Call was formed in 1998 by old friends Chris Bay and Daniel Zimmermann during an off-period for the latter's main band, Gamma Ray. They eventually completed a six-song demo with the well-known producer Charlie Bauerfeind, who offered the tape to several record companies.
At the same time, the Freedom Call line up was completed by Ilker Ersin on the Bass guitar and Sascha Gerstner on Guitar. Chris and Dan saw Sascha in the beginning of 1998, playing in a cover band. Ilker and Chris had played together in a band called Moon Doc for some years.
The debut album, Stairway to Fairyland was released in early 1999, and on 25 May Freedom Call made their official live debut during a France tour as support band of Angra and Edguy. At the end of August Freedom Call started recording the 5-track Mini LP called "Taragon", with new songs, a cover version of Ultravox' "Dancing with tears in my eyes", a new-sung version of the "Stairway to Fairyland" a Japanese bonus track called "Kingdom Come" and a new version of "Tears of Taragon" with Biff Byford, singer of Saxon narrating the "Tale of Taragon" on it.
By the end of 1999, Freedom Call had entered the studio again to record the second album called "Crystal Empire", which was released in late 2000.
In March 2001 Sascha Gerstner left Freedom Call (he would later join Helloween). He was eventually replaced by Cédric "Cede" Dupont, the Swiss guitarist of Symphorce.
In the middle of January 2002 the new formation of the band began recording their new album called "Eternity." Dan and Chris produced the album on their own this time as Charlie Bauerfeind was not available at the time. He was, however, responsible for the drum recordings and the final mix.
Later that year, they were invited on tour with Blind Guardian. During this tour they recorded the live album, "Live Invasion" together with Charlie Bauerfeind in Düsseldorf, Stuttgart and Munich.
The keyboard player used on this tour, Nils Neumann, was soon invited to become the fifth member of the band. After an extended break, the next album The Circle of Life was recorded at Hansen Studio, Hamburg and FC Studios, Nuremberg from August to October 2004, and released in March 2005.
Shortly after the release, both Cédric "Cede" Dupont and Ilker Ersin decided to leave Freedom Call (independently of each other). Replacements were eventually announced in the respective form of the unknown Lars Rettkowitz and Armin Donderer, formerly of Paradox.
A new album with the title "Dimensions" was released on 23 April 2007 and, according to Dan Zimmermann, sounds closer to the Eternity album than its more experimental successor. The songs "The Wanderer" and "Dimensions" were also used in the online rhythm game "Flash Flash Revolution"
In March 2009, the band announced that they were putting the finishing touches to a new album, "Legend of the Shadowking", and that they had parted ways with bassist Armin Donderer, who would be replaced by Samy Saemann.
Also Dan Zimmerman announced that he would be replaced by Klaus Sperling for the 2010 touring cycle as he would be on the road with Gamma Ray during this period. It has later been confirmed on the bands homepage that Zimmermann officially has left the band. He is currently listed as a former member.
Chris Bay has announced that the band is working on another album to be released sometime in February 2012. It was announced in September 2011, that the title of the upcoming album is "Land of the Crimson Dawn." The album was released 24 February 2012.
