Freedom Call is a German

power metal Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional heavy metal with speed metal, often within a symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in co ...

band formed in 1998. The band tours regularly and the current line-up includes one original member, lead vocalist and songwriter, Chris Bay. Freedom Call has released 14 albums in total, eleven of these studio albums.

Biography

Background

Freedom Call's frontman Chris Bay gained a lot of his vocal ability from his grandfather, an

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

singer with the

Berlin State Opera The Staatsoper Unter den Linden ( State Opera under the Lime Trees), also known as the Berlin State Opera (), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of P ...

, and his mother, who was a sought-after chorus singer. When only seven he began to play the guitar and by the time he was ten had tried his hand at the piano. Having played in various local rock bands, Bay moved to

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

in 1990 and got his first serious gig when he worked with Zed Yago. From 1993 to 1996 Chris was a member of former

Victory The term victory (from ) originally applied to warfare, and denotes success achieved in personal duel, combat, after military operations in general or, by extension, in any competition. Success in a military campaign constitutes a strategic vi ...

guitarist Hermann Frank's band Moon Doc, with whom he recorded the albums "Moon Doc" (1995) and "Get Mooned" (1996).

Founding (1997–1998)

In 1998 Chris Bay and old friend

Daniel Zimmermann Daniel Zimmermann (born 3 May 1982 in Düsseldorf) is a German politician, founder of the PETO party, and he has been the mayor of Monheim am Rhein since 21 October 2009. When elected, he was the youngest mayor in Germany. Professional career Z ...

formed Freedom Call during an off-period for the latter's main band,

Gamma Ray A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol ), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from high energy interactions like the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei or astronomical events like solar flares. It consists o ...

with the stated goal of making "Happy Metal". The two had started writing songs together towards the end of 1997. They eventually completed a six-song demo ''Freedom Call'' with well-known producer

Charlie Bauerfeind Karl Rudolf "Charlie" Bauerfeind (born 30 May 1963) is a German sound engineer and producer who has worked mostly with power metal bands such as Angra, Blind Guardian, Helloween, Primal Fear, Rage, HammerFall and Saxon. Career Highlightes ...

, who offered the tape to several record companies. At the same time, the Freedom Call line up was completed by Ilker Ersin on bass guitar and

Sascha Gerstner Sascha Gerstner (born 2 April 1977) is a German musician who has been one of the guitarists and backing vocalists of power metal band Helloween since 2002. As of 2016, he is Helloween's second-longest tenured guitarist, surpassing his predecess ...

on guitar. In 1998 Chris and Dan had seen Sascha playing in a

cover band A cover band (or covers band) is a band that plays songs recorded by someone else, sometimes mimicking the original as accurately as possible, and sometimes re-interpreting or changing the original. These remade songs are known as cover songs. N ...

''Stairway to Fairyland'' and ''Crystal Empire'' (1999–2001)

Freedom Call's debut album, ''Stairway to Fairyland'' was released on 7 May 1999 by NTS Records. ''Stairway to Fairyland'' would sell over 35,000 copies in the first year of its release. On 25 May 1999 Freedom Call made their live debut with a tour of France as support band for Angra and

Edguy Edguy is a German power metal band formed in 1992 in Fulda by students Tobias Sammet, Jens Ludwig, Dominik Storch, and Dirk Sauer. Initially named after their math teacher, the band faced early rejections from record labels but persevered, relea ...

. At the end of August, Freedom Call commenced recording of the five-track mini LP ''Taragon''. Taragon featured new songs, a cover version of

Ultravox Ultravox (earlier styled as Ultravox!) were a British new wave band, formed in London in April 1974 as Tiger Lily. Between 1980 and 1986, they scored seven Top Ten albums and seventeen Top 40 singles in the UK, the most successful of which wa ...

's "Dancing With Tears in My Eyes", a new version of "Stairway to Fairyland", a new version of "Tears of Taragon" with

Biff Byford Peter Rodney "Biff" Byford (born 15 January 1951) is an English singer best known as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Saxon. Early life Byford was born in Skelmanthorpe, West Yorkshire, the youngest of four children to Ernest Cha ...

, singer with

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

narrating the "Tale of Taragon" on it. There was also a bonus track for

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

called "Kingdom Come". By the end of 1999, Freedom Call had entered the studio again to record their second album ''Crystal Empire'', this released on 22 January 2001. ''

Crystal Empire ''Crystal Empire'' is the second full-length album by the German power metal band Freedom Call. It was released on 22 January 2001 by Steamhammer. It was the last Freedom Call album with Sascha Gerstner, who later joined Helloween. Track list ...

'' was promoted as the logical musical continuation of ''Stairway To Fairyland''. In March 2001 Sascha Gerstner left Freedom Call (he would later join

Helloween Helloween is a German power metal band founded in 1984 in Hamburg by members of bands Iron Fist, Gentry, Second Hell and Powerfool. The band has at times been called one of the most influential European heavy metal bands of the 1980s. Its first ...

). Gerstner was eventually replaced by Cédric "Cede" Dupont, the

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

guitarist of

Symphorce Symphorce was a German progressive metal, progressive power metal band, originally assembled in 1998. History The band was formed in October 1998 by singer Andy B. Franck. He created the name Symphorce as a play of words, a portmanteau of sy ...

''Eternity'' and ''The Circle of Life'' (2002–2006)

In the middle of January 2002 the new lineup began recording a new album called ''

Eternity Eternity, in common parlance, is an Infinity, infinite amount of time that never ends or the quality, condition or fact of being everlasting or eternal. Classical philosophy, however, defines eternity as what is timeless or exists outside tim ...

''. Dan and Chris produced ''Eternity'' on their own this time as Charlie Bauerfeind was not available. He was, however, responsible for the drum recordings and the final mix. ''Eternity'' was released on 3 June 2002 by Steamhammer. Later that year, Freedom Call was invited on tour with

Blind Guardian Blind Guardian is a German power metal band formed in 1984 in Krefeld, West Germany. They are often credited as one of the seminal and most influential bands in the power metal and speed metal subgenres. Nine musicians have been part of the band ...

. During this tour they recorded the live album, '' Live Invasion'' together with Charlie Bauerfeind in Düsseldorf, Stuttgart and Munich. ''Live Invasion'' was released on 10 May 2004 by SPV. The

keyboard player A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instru ...

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,

and FC Studios,

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

from August to October 2004. ''The Circle of Life'' was released on 21 May 2005 by SPV. Shortly after the release of ''The Circle of Life'', both Cédric "Cede" Dupont and Ilker Ersin decided to leave Freedom Call (independently of each other). Replacements were eventually announced in the form of newcomer guitarist Lars Rettkowitz and Armin Donderer, formerly of

Paradox A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true or apparently true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictor ...

''Dimensions'' (2007–2008)

A new album with the title ''

Dimensions In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus, a line has a dimension of one (1D) because only one coordi ...

'' was released on 20 April 2007. Commenting on ''Dimensions'', Daniel Zimmerman said: ''"Even if the two predecessors, ''Eternity'' and ''The Circle of Life'', took very different directions, both albums had a number of strong moments. ''Dimensions'' combines the most successful elements from both albums, in other words: we included our penchant for fast and very melodic numbers from ''Eternity'' with the more contemporary, bombastic components of ''The Circle of Life''."'' The songs "The Wanderer" and "Dimensions" were also used in the online rhythm game "Flash Flash Revolution".

''Legend of the Shadowking'' and ''Land of the Crimson Dawn'' (2009–2012)

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. ''Legend of the Shadowking'' was released on 29 January 2010 by SPV. For the 2010 touring cycle, Dan Zimmerman announced that he would be replaced by Klaus Sperling as during this time he immermanwould be on the road with

. It was later confirmed on the band's website that Zimmermann had officially left the band. '' Live in Hellvetia'' was the first live

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

by Freedom Call. It was released on 20 May 2011 by SPV. ''Live in Hellvetia'' was recorded on 29 December 2010 in Z7

Pratteln Pratteln (Swiss German: ''Brattele'') is a municipality in the canton of Basel-Landschaft in Switzerland, located in the district of Liestal. History Pratteln is first mentioned around 1102-03 as ''Bratello''. Geography Pratteln has an area, ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The title of the next Freedom Call studio album, '' Land of the Crimson Dawn'', was announced in September 2011. Chris Bay had previously announced that the band was working on the album and it would be released sometime in February 2012. ''Land of the Crimson Dawn'' was released 24 February 2012 by SPV.

''Beyond'' and ''Master of Light'' (2013–present)

''Ages of Light'' (1998–2013) is the first ''best-of'' compilation by Freedom Call. It was released on 26 April 2013 by SPV. The band announced on 15 September 2013 that they were working on a new album, '' Beyond'', with a new lineup. Ilker Ersin returned to the band to resume bass duties and Ramy Ali joined the band on drums. A music video was filmed on 15 December 2013 for the song ''Union of the Strong''. The shoot took place in the vicinity of

and

Franconia Franconia ( ; ; ) is a geographical region of Germany, characterised by its culture and East Franconian dialect (). Franconia is made up of the three (governmental districts) of Lower Franconia, Lower, Middle Franconia, Middle and Upper Franco ...

, the song was taken from the album ''Beyond'' that was released on 21 February 2014. A vinyl version of ''Beyond'' was released on 14 March 2014. ''Beyond'' was produced by Chris Bay and Stephan Ernst at the Separate Sound Studios in

and at Freedom Call's own studio. In May 2015 Freedom Call released ''666 Weeks Beyond Eternity'', a reissued edition of their 2002 studio album, ''Eternity''. As the title suggests, ''666 Weeks Beyond Eternity'' was released 666 weeks after the release of the original album. The re-issue is a two disc set featuring the original ''Eternity'' album which has been

remastered A remaster is a change in the sound or image quality of previously created forms of media, whether Mastering (audio), audiophonic, Cinematography, cinematic, or Videography, videographic. The resulting product is said to be remastered. The term ...

, plus it includes some bonus content on the second disc including live tracks, acoustic tracks, special versions of their songs, as well as a new song written exclusively for this release. In support of the album release, the 666 Weeks Beyond Eternity Tour 2015 occurred between October 2015 (Glasgow, UK; 9 Oct) and December 2015 (Augsburg, Germany; 22 Dec). In July 2016 Freedom Call launched a new Official Fanclub on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

. Freedom Call's ninth studio album, ''Master of Light'' was released on 11 November 2016 (18 November in USA). The first single taken from the album (''Hammer of the Gods'') was released on 8 July 2016. A promotional video for the track ''Metal is for Everyone'' became available on 2 November 2016. Following a release party at Rockcafe Brown Sugar in Nürnberg on 10 November 2016, the four-city ''Master of Light'' Latin America tour ran from 25 November until 2 December 2016. The ''Master of Light'' tour which began in 2016 continued through 2017 and in to 2018. Countries visited as part of the 2017–2018 legs of the tour included Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand and the UK. A number of festival dates also took place, with others scheduled for 2018 that included 70,000 Tons of Metal from 1 to 5 February 2018, and include Metalfest Open Air 2018 and Leyendas Del Rock 2018. The band's 2024 full-length album was called Silver Romance and released in May by Steamhammer.

Chris Bay solo

In November 2017 Chris Bay announced that he would be releasing his first solo album, ''Chasing The Sun'', on Steamhammer/SPV records on 23 February 2018. The first single from the album "Radio Starlight" was released on 1 December 2017. Of the album and its content Bay commented: "I permanently write songs and am constantly working on ideas in the studio... ...that's why I've collected a whole lot of tracks over the years that on the one hand don't really suit Freedom Call and on the other are just too good to gather dust in my archive." The second single from the album
Hollywood Dancer
was released on 2 February 2018.

Members

*Chris Bay – vocals, guitar, keyboards (1998–present) *Lars Rettkowitz – guitar (2005–present) *Francesco Ferraro – bass (2019–present) *Ramy Ali – drums (2013–2018, 2023–present) Live members *Klaus Sperling – drums (2010–2013, 2020–present) Former members *

– guitar (1998–2001) * Cédric "Cede" Dupont – guitar (2001–2005) *Ilker Ersin – bass (1998–2005, 2013–2018) *Armin Donderer – bass (2005–2009) *Samy Saemann – bass (2009–2013) *

Dan Zimmermann Daniel Hans Erwin Zimmermann (born 30 October 1966 in Nürnberg, West Germany) is a retired German heavy metal drummer. He is best known as having been the drummer of German power metal bands Gamma Ray and Freedom Call. He was a founding member ...

– drums (1998–2010) *Timmi Breideband – drums (2019) *Nils Neumann – keyboards (2004–2005)

Timeline

Discography

Studio albums

*''Stairway to Fairyland'' (1999) *''

'' (2001) *''

'' (2002) *'' The Circle of Life'' (2005) *''

'' (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)

Live albums

*'' Live Invasion'' (2004) *'' Live in Hellvetia'' (2011) *'' The M.E.T.A.L.Fest'' (2023)

Special releases

*'' Ages of Light'' (Compilation) (2013) *''666 Weeks Beyond Eternity'' (Eternity re-release and remastered with bonus material) (2015)

Demo

*''Freedom Call demo'' (1998)

EPs/Singles

*''Taragon'' (1999) *''Silent Empire'' (Acoustic EP) (2001) *''Eternity'' (2002) *''Blackened Sun'' (2007) *''Mr. Evil / Innocent World'' (2007) *''Zauber der Nacht'' (2010) *''Rockin' Radio'' (2012) *''Power & Glory'' (2012) *''Union of the Strong'' (2014) *''Hammer of the Gods'' (2016) *''111 – the Number of the Angels'' (2019) *''The M.E.T.A.L. Fest'' (2023) *''Silver Romance'' (2024) *''In Quest of Love'' (2024) *''High Above'' (2024)

References

External links

* *
Official Facebook fanclubChris Bay, Interview: "Happy People Who Make Happy Music" 28 March 2013
{{Authority control German power metal musical groups German symphonic metal musical groups German musical quintets Musical groups established in 1998