Freedom Call

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Origin	Nuremberg
Country	Germany
Years active	1998–Present
Genres	Power Metal
Labels	SPV/Steamhammer
Members	Chris Bay Dan Zimmermann Nils Neumann Armin Donderer Lars Rettkowitz

Freedom Call is a German power metal band formed in 1998.

1 Biography
2 Lineup
- 2.1 Former Members
3 Discography
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Formed in 1998 by old friends Chris Bay and Daniel Zimmermann during an off-period for the latter's main band, Gamma Ray. They eventually completed a six-song demo with the well-known producer Charlie Bauerfeind, who offered the tape to several record companies.

At the same time, the Freedom Call line up was completed by Ilker Ersin on the Bass guitar and Sascha Gerstner on Guitar. Chris and Dan saw Sascha in the beginning of 1998, playing in a cover band. Ilker and had Chris played together in a band called Moon Doc for some years.

The debut album, Stairway to Fairyland was released in early 1999, and on the 25th of May Freedom Call made their official live debut during a France tour as support band of Angra and Edguy. At the end of August Freedom Call started recording the 5-track Mini LP called "Taragon", with new songs, a cover version of Ultravox' "Dancing with tears in my eyes", a new-sung version of the "Stairway to Fairyland" a Japanese bonus track called "Kingdom Come" and a new version of "Tears of Taragon" with Biff Byford, singer of Saxon narrating the "Tale of Taragon" on it.

By the end of 1999, Freedom Call had entered the studio again to record the second album called "Crystal Empire", which was released late on in 2000.

In March 2001 Sascha Gerstner left the Freedom Call, saying that he wanted to make his own band and that he didn't want to play Metal anymore (he would later join Helloween). He was eventually replaced by Cedric "Cede" Dupont, the Swiss guitarist of Symphorce.

In the middle of January 2002 the new formation of the band began recording their new album called "Eternity". Dan and Chris produced the album on their own this time as Charlie Bauerfeind was not available at the time. He was, however, responsible for the drum recordings and the final mix.

Later that year, they were invited on tour with Blind Guardian. During this tour they recorded the live album, "Live Invasion" together with Charlie Bauerfeind in Düsseldorf, Stuttgart and Munich.

The keyboard player used 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, Hamburg and FC Studios, Nuremberg from August to October 2004, and released in March, 2005.

Shortly after the release, both Cede Cupont and Ilker Ersin decided to leave Freedom Call (independently of each other). Replacements were eventually announced in the respective form of the unknown Lars Rettkowitz and Armin Donderer, formerly of Paradox.

A new album with the working title "Dimensions" is planned for 2007, and will, according to Dan Zimmermann, sound closer to the Eternity album than its more experimenal successor. [1]