Dimensions

Freedom Call seemed to be trying to distance themselves from their typical speedy, happy, huge chorus-driven brand of melodic power metal with their Circle Of Life album that was released two years ago. The speediness and huge bombastic melodic choruses that made albums like Eternity and Stairway To Fairyland such gems made only very brief appearances. You can't blame a band for trying to change their sound as speedy melodic power metal has become so diluted and watered down that it's really hard to tell some of the bands in the genre apart from each other. Long-time fans were a little disappointed whereas they seemed to attract the attention of those who were initially turned off by the style of their previous work. With their new album Dimensions, Freedom Call welcomes two new members to the band in Lars Rettkowitz, guitar and Armin Donderer, bass. Besides bringing new blood to the band, they also bring song writing abilities as reflected in their contributions to four of the tracks on this new album. Long-time writing partners Chris Bay, vocals and Dan Zimmermann, drums (Gamma Ray) contribute the remaining seven tracks. The result is a mixed bag in which the style of the Eternity album is revisited for a few tracks alongside some even further experimentation in sound towards a more simpler and stripped down mid tempo contemporary melodic heavy metal sound.

After the obligatory epic, orchestrated intro, we are treated to a couple of speedy melodic tracks, much more in the vein of traditional Freedom Call material. Innocent World and United Alliance have the typical speediness and huge choruses with Innocent World sounding even more Helloween-ish than ever before. Both tracks however, are very typical stuff with choruses that aren't anywhere near as soaring and epic in quality as with their classic material. Mr. Evil is a bouncy and catchy attempt at a Dr. Stein, Mr. Torture style of track that although is very different for Freedom Call, does have it's moments and is a pretty cool song. With the double punch of Queen Of My World and Light Up the Sky, we finally get to the culmination of speedy melodic power metal with bombastic and soaring choruses that were the founding basis of the Freedom Call sound. Unfortunately for the remainder of the album, besides My Dying Paradise with it's Queen-like guitar orchestrations and the speedy celtic-flavored Far Away, these are the only instances where we see more of the traditional Freedom Call style. The remaining tracks range from the acoustic flavored ballad Words Of Endeavour to the very average at best, melodic heavy metal style of the title track. Magic Moments also falls into the melodic heavy metal category with a very Angra-like chorus. Another more experimental track, Blackened Sun sees a darker side to the band's sound with the use of electronic drums for "mechanical effect" and an overall hypnotic feel. The chorus is actually quite catchy on this one and overall it works quite well within the framework of the album.

I'm a big fan of this band and I regard their Eternity album (in all it's glorious cheesiness) as one of the best melodic power metal albums ever made. The choruses to some of the songs on that album are just unbelievable. With Dimensions, we get a couple of tracks that fit quite well within that framework even if they have a copy/paste type of feel and a strong familiarity with other material from past albums. With others, there's even more of a tangent away from that sound; something that was started with the Circle Of Life album. It seems like the intention was to throw in a few of the speedy melodic songs with the huge choruses to satisfy the fans who weren't happy with the direction of the Circle Of Life album, all the while continuing to move more into a stripped down, mainstream melodic heavy metal direction with the rest of the tracks. I like most of the album but the true Freedom Call spirit and energy only makes brief appearances and as a result, the character of the band that used to flow through their music on past albums just isn't there. Fans of the band should still find enough likeable songs here with Dimensions but for others, they have far better albums than this one.