Freedom Call
Crystal Empire

THE REVIEW

"The Crystal Empire," the third work by the German power metallers who, with their music (dubbed gay metal due to its cheerfulness), are making a name for themselves worldwide. An album half a step below "Eternity" and "Stairway to Fairyland" but consistent with the excellent works of Freedom Call.

Let's analyze the songs on the album. The album opens with The King of the Crystal Empire, an intro that leads us into Freedom Call, a wonderful song that will surely become a staple for this band and will be performed many times live (the beginning vaguely resembles Fear of the Dark [in terms of musical sound, not comparable to the Maiden's masterpiece]). Then we encounter Rise Up and Farewell. The first doesn't engage much but is easy to listen to, while the second is introduced by all the band members (who sing it together for a short period) and then we hear the typical Freedom song, cheerful, carefree, and innocent. But here comes Pharao, a great song with a fast keyboard intro that approaches the gothic and continues with the usual choruses well sung by Bay.

Continuing to listen to the album, we aggressively arrive at Call of Fame (similar in the initial part to Dancing with Tears in My Eyes), the latter present in the LP "Taragon." We come to Heart of the Rainbow with a nice keyboard intro reminiscent of 'Rhapsody'. Then comes The Quest (the longest song ever composed by Freedom Call, over 7 minutes) and Ocean, very beautiful, powerful, fast with Bay and Dan performing excellently.
The album closes with Palace of Fantasy and The Wanderer, other cheerful, carefree songs that flow quickly and enjoyably. Another good album for the Germans accused of not making metal because their songs are deemed too joyful and this can't be allowed in this type of music.

But Freedom Call continues to amaze and produce good albums, but above all, they prove wrong those who accuse them (quite unjustly). Keep it up.