You know, Freedom Call is one of those bands that people either love or hate. The people who love em like me, can appreciate their speedy, melodic, and overtly happy Power Metal. And when I say happy, I mean happy. This is Freedom Call’s trademark, the supremely smiling “Ain’t life grand?” demeanor. My friend put it best, “Man, any happier than Freedom Call and prancing elves would appear.” I don’t care though, I like this band a lot and they never cease to lift me up when I am in a down or depressed state, I mean one listen to such grandiose metal hymns such as Another Day and Shine On and you can’t help but feel better about yourself. They play a style similar to Keeper era Helloween and vocalist Chris Bay has a high and clear voice that suits the music perfectly, I can’t imagine these songs being done by any other vocalist. Also it is important to note that this album as well as Crystal Empire have pre-Helloween Sascha Gerstner on guitars.

Every song on here with the exception of Holy Knight is a metal hymn. They all contain very epic choirs with multiple backing vocals. This took me a while to get used to however, not because I had never heard choirs in a Power Metal song before but because these just have a different sound to them. I can’t quite place what it is but it took awhile for me to get into Freedom Call because of this. Over the Rainbow is a perfect album opener, it starts slow with an ominous sounding organ intro before cascading into a speed metal tune with a glorious anthemic chorus. A little bit longer than most Power Metal songs Over the Rainbow fades out around the six minute mark. After another fast paced hymn, Tears Falling comes a slower but not quite mid tempo paced song that is the semi-title track to the album Fairyland. While I especially enjoy the chorus it always makes me start nodding my head, the song as whole just doesn’t thrill me as much as the other killers or the previous two tracks. A triple shot of pure Power Metal godliness is next though with Shine On, We Are One, and Hymn to the Brave. These three songs are the heart and soul of Stairway to Fairyland and after this triumvirate of metal is over with only Another Day comes close to matching the strength of these tunes. Shine On and We Are One are two incredibly fast and uplifting tracks that always make me feel proud of metal. None of these songs however hold a candle to the almighty Hymn to the Brave. This is a perfect metal hymn, this is a song that you would play while you and all your metal brothers sway to and fro holding your pint of ale high in the sky singing along the entire duration of the track. A “Hymn” indeed.

Despite all my praising of this album I have to be objective and admit that there really isn’t anything that’s all that new or groundbreaking on Stairway to Fairyland and this isn’t for everyone. About as good as so called “generic” Power Metal gets but since its not anything new I can’t give it more than an 80 despite the fact I love this album.