|
Past Issues:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27
BACK
FREEDOM
CALL - To Crack a Conundrum
By Kevin Stewart-Panko
If
I weighed my like/dislike of bands on extraneous stuff -- like interviews,
videos, haircuts, footwear or personal politics -- I'd probably
have sold my Freedom Call albums the minute I got off the phone
with drummer Dan Zimmerman. He's pimping their new opus, Eternity,
a flashy slice of melodic haughtiness of which I am an unabashed
fan, despite the slickness and musical pomposity. However, the naiveté,
contradiction and mild whining expressed led me to the discovery
of what will heretofore be known as 'The Power Metal Conundrum'.
Check it out and see if you agree.
Many
great Euro/power bands have existed throughout metal history. However,
the sound hasn't really advanced much beyond the 80s blueprint.
Being that Freedom Call, to these ears, actually expands upon the
basics of the blueprint, coupled with the fact that they're from
Germany, not exactly Ground Zero for the pushing of metal's boundaries,
do they feel limited doing what they do?
"We
don't. We write the songs we want and Eternity is exactly what we
want. Maybe it's a little old fashioned, but you shouldn't force
yourself to come up with something new. You have to make music the
way you want, so if somebody says you're stuck in old 80s power
metal, Helloween style, maybe they're right, but that's the music
we want to do. For us there's no need to try new things and sound
new."
A-ha!
The first contradictory statement. Yes, you may think you write
what you want and sound like Kai Hansen, but there's something different
about Freedom Call. They temper their luxurious melodi-metal with
sonic variety. Many tracks on Eternity have a delirious, Bal Sagoth-ian
battle metal feel. There's an infectious energy to their high-octane
compositions. They eschew classically influenced keyboard runs and
stylistics in favour of more brassy sounding lines. Let's not even
talk about those polka beats. They stand apart from Rhapsody, Blind
Guardian and HammerFall. And Zimmerman knows it.
"Yeah...
you're right. It's the way we hear it when we write and arrange.
The brass plays the melody lines and that's become a trademark for
Freedom Call because not many bands use brass arrangements."
Oh,
but 'The Conundrum' continues when I ask about their fanbase, which
probably consists of run-of-the-mill metal fans, or is there any
crossover from fans of other genres?
"No,"
Zimmerman says, like I should know better. "It's a very special
[strictly metal] scene. In Germany, there's a big market for metal,
but it's spread out over different styles. Like a black metal fan
will only listen to black metal and hate all other metal. The melodic
metal fans are very limited and it's a very small scene. If you
take the potential of melodic metal sales, it's about 200,000 and
that's not much."
Ok,
it's a minor point, based on perspective, but do you know how many
power metal bands, especially in North America, would sell their
mothers into porn for the opportunity to have 200,000 people hear
of them, let alone sell that many albums?
Onward.
Freedom Call toured Europe with HammerFall upon the release of their
previous album, Crystal Empire. Just before the release of 'Eternity'
they did some time on the continent with Blind Guardian. Sounds
like they're willing to expand into new and scary territories.
"We
want to play everywhere and in front of as many people as possible,
but in the end, it always depends on a promoter who can bring us
places. It also depends on record sales. We have to play in places
where they want us to play; Spain and France are good markets for
us and Scandinavia is cool. Basically, with every album we do a
tour. The best thing to do is release a record and do one tour four
weeks later, but the Blind Guardian tour was already happening and
then the album was released. It wasn't optimal co-ordination. We're
not a headlining act yet and if we ever get to be, we can co-ordinate
our tours the way we want."
Say
huh? They want to play in front of everyone and their sister, but
will only embark upon one tour per album, regardless of the timing,
and will only play if a promoter ships their butts somewhere? I
guess the concept of DIY is still a foreign one to these guys, but
if one of your goals is to play out, why wait for someone else to
take the reins? Why not book your own tours? Am I being hypercritical?
Do you see it as well? I really like this band, but their traditionalist
way of being really needs some work. The feeling I get is that Freedom
Call want to expand their reach within the metal scene, but are
at loggerheads with what they want to do for themselves and the
traditional way of being for a melodic power metal band. This final
point should drive it home for you if you're still not convinced.
The floor is yours Dan.
"In
the studio, Chris (Bay; guitar/vocals/keys) plays keyboards, so
we have guests play keyboards live. It's pretty easy to find people
because there's a big cover scene in Southern Germany and a lot
of these musicians' dream is to tour, but they don't want to have
anything to do with writing the songs or actually being in the band."
Yeeesh!
|
