You d be hard put to find negative emotions or a depressive disposition in the Freedom Call camp. Among the greatest fortes of this German melodic metal act is their uncompromisingly positive attitude to life, which the musicians have incorporated in their fresh and catchy songs for more than 15 years. This positive frame of mind is the central theme of their latest studio album, Beyond, scheduled for release on 24 February 2014 (Germany: 21 February 2014; USA: 4 March 2014). Vocalist and guitarist Chris Bay explains the basic idea behind the current album: The most important thing about everything you do is that you enjoy doing it. We always concentrate on the positive first, which reflects our character. Optimism is one of our most important philosophies, and that s exactly what Beyond is about. Compositions which blend the band s greatest strengths and sparkle with a lot of class, finesse and enthusiasm. Bay: Stylistically, we have remained faithful to ourselves, in fact we ve even returned to a slightly more traditional direction. I think that s probably the result of recent tours, where we had lots of fun with the classic Freedom Call numbers, which not only a lot of our faithful fans from the band s early days will appreciate. The album s focal point is the eight-minute title track, which Bay & Co. wrote and recorded with a great love of detail: Finding the right arrangement was an exciting challenge for us. Now that the song has been recorded, we re really proud of it. To us, Beyond is a kind of successor to The Quest from our second album, Crystal Empire. Along with Beyond , there are another 13 strong tracks, among them classic Freedom Call numbers such as Union Of The Strong (the release of which will be supported by a video clip), Knights Of Taragon and Colours Of Freedom . Chris Bay promises a perceptible musical development with lots of interesting accents and a number of surprises: Dance Off The Devil the off is consciously spelled with a double f with its African rhythms and mystic grooves may sound slightly unusual, but it perfectly suits the album title, which is meant in a spiritual sense.