FREEDOM CALL — Stairway to Fairyland (review)

FREEDOM CALL — Stairway to Fairyland album cover Album · 1999 · Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Kingcrimsonprog
If you are at all interested in Melodic European Power Metal, then you seriously have to give Germany’s Freedom Call some attention. For anyone who’s bought Keeper Of The Seven Keys, Land Of The Free, Visions and Somewhere Far Beyond and is now wondering “Where Next?” I personally feel the answer is Stairway To Fairyland.

Stairway To Fairyland, as if you couldn’t already tell purely by that name, is the kind of super uplifting, happy sounding, positive, major key Power Metal that puts a smile on the listener’s face. The kind of thing that scowling naysayers would call Flower Metal. The kind of music that influenced the likes of Dragonforce. If any of that sounds good to you then you should get up on this album immediately.

The thunderous drums by Gamma Ray’s Dan Zimmermann, the tasteful pleasant guitar leads from Helloween’s Sascha Gerstner and the crystal clear production job from Power Metal Producer extraordinaire Charlie Bauerfeind (who’s worked with Angra, Blind Guardian, Primal Fear, Rage, HammerFall, Helloween and Gamma Ray) will have Power Metal enthusiast’s ears twitching with recognition and pleasure straight away. Add to that main-man Chris Bay’s immense vocal talents and brilliant attention to detail and you’ve got a serious recipe for success. The talent levels are through the ceiling.

What also makes this album great is that it isn’t just style over substance. The structuring and changes are so well thought out and the album really feels studied and brewed to perfection. There’s a feeling of craftsmanship and a better-than-the-sum-of-its-parts situation going on in a major way. There aren’t weak tracks, there aren’t weak sections and the band seem to be going for some sort of world record for most exciting choruses on a single album. Whether they achieve it is up to you, but it definitely seems like they’re doing their hardest to try.

Highlights include “Fairyland,” “We Are One” and the smile-guarantee that is the opener “Over The Rainbow.” If you wonder whether you should pick this album up, give one of those tracks a shot.

Overall; Look at the album artwork, look at the title for goodness sakes, then look at the pedigree of the creative team. If all of that is sending positive signals to your brain then dive in with both feet! If someone asked me to point them towards the happiest Metal album I’d ever heard I’d steer them in this direction. Stairway To Fairyland is a fun, satisfying, happy little fifty-five minutes of pure entertainment. It is remarkably consistent, extremely well-constructed and masterfully delivered. It flows perfectly. I fully and enthusiastically recommend anyone who is into even one of the other bands mentioned above to give this album a priority listen.
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UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Sounds like a power metal release I have to check out.

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