The Freedom Call EP was released in tandem with the Holy Live EP following the release of the full length Holy Land. Originally the point of Freedom Call was to unload the title track, a remix of their Japanese territory Holy Land bonus track Queen Of The Night, and then some throwaway songs. I say throwaway because the "orchestral" version of Stand Away sounds like they just turned the strings up in the mix. The drums sounds like ass on the cover of Painkiller, and the edit version of Deep Blue is pointless as well as being another ballad. However! This EP has been reissued so many times with three bonus tracks, essentially the Live At The FNAC acoustic EP, that if you somehow find a version without those three songs then you either have some crazy original or the world's shittiest bootleg. These three acoustic songs plus the first two are reason enough to seek this release out.

Freedom Call the song sounds more in line with some of the speedier moments on Holy Land. What's odd is that this was included in their demo sessions for the album, the much bootlegged "Eyes Of Christ." Other songs from these sessions popped up later on the 2002 EP Hunters And Prey, such as the song Eyes Of Christ and a speedier version of Live And Learn. Freedom Call would have fit in decently in the first half of Holy Land, I'm assuming as the people in the album story set sail to Brazil. Who knows why this didn't make the final cut? Maybe the band didn't finish the song in time (the demo version is quite rough) or they didn't put it on the album due to story flow. Kinda like how Bruce Springsteen left several songs off Darkness On The Edge Of Town and The River so he wouldn't ruin "the flow." This is a decent enough song, but THIS should have been the Japanese bonus track for Holy Land and Queen Of The Night should have been on every version. The reason this was a bonus track was probably because Queen Of The Night is actually really old and a version with different lyrics can be found on the "Reaching Horizons" demo. So this particular song definitely has more of an Angel's Cry feel than the rest of Holy Land.

The three live acoustic tracks are highly notable for their really cool arrangements and the overall general vibe of the crowd. The first song is an almost ten minute version of Angel's Cry. Immediately you can tell this is an intimate show with tons of crowd participation. What's really cool is that this almost sounds like a rowdy Mexican party. There's an accordion doing lead guitar lines and the crowd is doing lots of cheering and clapping. Tons of call and response sections. Andre even belts out an "Ayy yi yi muchacho," during the middle jam section. Chega De Suadade is an old bossa nova song that Angra tackle. Talk about coming out of left field. I'm not too familiar with the original and am not going to pretend like I'm some bossa nova aficionado to seem cool, so I'll just say the band sounds like they know what they are doing. The coolest crowd moments are next in the last song, Never Understand. Literally everything about this track owns ass. The crowd is clapping, random folks are yeehawing and whooping in the background, the folky guitar melody blends in with the atmosphere of the crowd and it just really knocks you back. Angra and Blind Guardian are both bands that know how to arrange songs for the acoustic setting and make them interesting to both play and listen to. Since everyone is streaming acoustic stuff during today's bruhaha, this little EP would be a good framework to use on how to rearrange electric stuff that "just wouldn't work" acoustically.

Back in the day, EPs like this were cool little commodities that helped fans wait for the next full album. It's been so long that this was released that not only does this have the acoustic songs, it is usually packaged with the Holy Live EP as well. Just like that EP is essential for live Matos, so is this one. What a frontman for the ages. A really cool idea to celebrate Andre would be to clean up the "Eyes Of Christ" and the "Reaching Horizons" demos, package them as a massive two cd set and release it with a big ass booklet full of liner notes from the guys and maybe a single disc full live show recording from an early gig. I'd buy it!