maestro_al, I'm glad you asked!
Freedom Call is currently wearing out the CD drive in my car, my home office stereo, the house changer, my roommate's Discman, etc. - I LOVE this band!
Oh yeah, your question! Freedom Call is a mildly symphonic POWER metal band that makes superb use of keys to enhance, rather than dominate, their speedy, melodic songs. I only own "Crystal Empire," which I believe is their newest. But I've been told their other 2 ("Taragon" and "Stairway to Fairyland") are equally as good. And oh yeah, almost forgot, the drummer (and primary songwriter) is Daniel Zimmerman of Gamma Ray! Check them out at
www.freedom-call.com.
White Skull, Domine, and Drakkar are all Italian power/speed metal bands. But I'll take them one at a time for you:
White Skull:
Female vocalist, very extravagant at times symphonic metal, other times, gruff-as-all-heck Viking-themed metal! Of their albums, I'd have to say that "Tales From the North" is my personal fave, though "Public Glory Secret Agony" isn't far behind. They're awesome! You can see their stuff at
http://users.iol.it/white_skull
Drakkar:
Another fantastic, speedy metal band along the lines of classic Helloween. Though named after a Viking longship, these guys are melodic, fantasy-inspired metal to the Nth degree. Get "Gemini" for sheer power metal bliss, and their website is at:
http://www.drakkar.it/frames.htm
Domine:
Also Italian, and perhaps the most "traditional" of the bands mentioned here. They play epic, speedy, melodic metal in the Helloween/Hammerfall/Gamma Ray/Running Wild/Manowar vein. I only have "Dragonlord" on disc, but it's inspired by Michael Moorcock's fantasy series of novels (if that sort of thing interests you), so it's kind of cool in its own D&D-inspired way. Domine simply rules! All my opinion, of course. Their site is:
http://truemetal.org/domine/main.htm
Hope this helps you. I know for a fact you can find customer reviews of all these bands on Amazon, and many of their songs for download at AudioGalaxy, so let me know what you think!
BTW, this Jacobs Dream disc I'm listening to right now is pretty damn good too!
