After two rather heavy shows in a row, delivered by Suidakra and Týr, it was time to lighten the mood a bit, and what better band to come on than Freedom Call? See if you can find a more positive band than that, I dare you!

Already as the German quartet hit the stage the positive atmosphere was rising as they, instead of beginning to play right at once, they began applauding, and had us doing the same, the fact that the sun was out again! How can you go wrong with a beginning like that I ask?
When Freedom Call finally did begin to play, they kicked off with the anthem We Are One, which brought about a good sing along from the crowd, and also pretty much laid the path for the rest of the show – Freedom Call had 45 minutes to play in, and they weren’t about to waste them on anything less than blissfully happy power metal tunes the likes of which only these guys can pull off!
This choice of style also carried over into the performance where we saw four guys smiling the top of their skulls off as they posed and rocked out. It wasn’t the liveliest show we had seen, neither on the festival nor by this band, but it was fun nonetheless, and the band-members good mood was highly contagious – I doubt there was a single metalhead present that wasn’t smiling along with them!

It’s been some time since I actively followed the releases of this band, and thus I was more familiar with the older material and enjoyed that the most, but Freedom Call is one of those bands who writes songs you can sing along to already on the first listen, like the loud “oh oh oh” chant in United Alliance (not the newest song played, I know, but still).
Still, the new songs with their modern and far from serious direction in the lyrics didn’t catch my interest as much as their earlier fantasy stuff; Hero On Video and Rockstars were simply too cheesy even for this band to bear!
Or so I thought, but then we arrived at Power & Glory, a song so filled to the brim with cheese that we saw several lactose intolerant people head straight for the loo! I mean, honestly, with lyrics going “to have a good time all together…for a happy metal party”, what were they thinking?!
The thing is, it worked! A happy metal party was exactly what we were having! I admit, I have later listened to the studio version of the track, and although it is still silly/funny, it lacks the same magic that it had live, but right there in the sun with a beer in hand, singing our throats off, life couldn’t have been better.

Freedom Call had managed to round up a pretty decent amount of people for their show as well, and as I mentioned earlier, it didn’t take long before the sing along commenced. The United Alliance chant was good, but the really memorable sing along moments were reserved for classics like The Quest, Warriors and the Final Countdown rip off Land Of Light. And of course Power & Glory, but I have already spent enough time on that one in this review.
There’s not so much more to say about the audience’s participation than this, but rest assured that it was a positive atmosphere all over the festival when Freedom Call played.
In all honesty, this was cheesy and silly if you really get right down to it, but you can’t be angry with someone who smiles as much as Chris Bay does, and as un-satanic and as far removed from the evils of this world as it might be, my metal heart still had a very good time in the company of this power metal act.

Setlist:

We Are One
United Alliance
Hero On Video
Rockstars
Tears Of Babylon
The Quest
Power & Glory
Warriors
Land Of Light