Stormwarrior - Thunder & Steele (2014) [Gorgatz]

Stormwarrior - Thunder & Steele (2014) [Gorgatz]



- I N F O -

Every review of a new Stormwarrior is an exercise in restraint. How is it possible to prevent yourself from adorning random words with even more random letters? I once asked bassist Yenz Leonhardt if there’s a system to the spell-check nightmare and he assured me there was, although they don’t always follow it. So hail thy sworde, the northerne wolves returneth and now I’m seriously going to stop(e).

I jest, because the return of Stormwarrior is a thing of joy indeed. While I respected several aspects of Heathen Warrior (e.g. the slower, more progressive approach on some songs), it lacked the hyperkinetic quality that previously characterized this act.

Now it’s back. With axes.

After barely two and a half seconds of intro – the time, historians have reported, it takes for a viking warrior to cleave your head in half – the Teutonic viking horde storms in with “Thunder & Steele”. The opener is so wild and energetic it almost feels like they improvised it on the first day in the studio. Riffs are blistering, melodies shimmering, and Piet Sielck’s production is as always top notch.

Little gems like this are strewn across the record. “Sacred Blade” features a riff that probably reduced Sielck to tears, especially with a new Iron Savior on the horizon. The chorus resembles “Metal Legacy” from Heading Northe, but distinguishes itself sufficiently for live consumption. In fact, most of the songs display such sheer axe-wielding cheer that I can completely forgive the occasional echo or dud. “Ironborn”, “Steelcrusader”, “Die By The Hammer”, and “One Will Survive” are all like part of a soundtrack to a viking movie featuring very little dialogue and lots of smashing. Think of them, Marvel, for your next Thor-event.

Of course it wouldn’t be Stormwarrior without at least one hurrah to the genre. “Servants Of Metal” is already a Manowar-song for sure, but who cares when it’s brought with such break-neck, train-wrecking, city-sacking recklessness. People in the audience have a fifty percent chance of exploding during the soundcheck alone. Actually, the label should probably stick a disclaimer on the Felipe Machado Franco cover warning parents against an overdose of HAMMERS for their children. Holy hyperbole, it’s just a bloody great song.

With the subtlety of a viking home invasion, Stormwarrior makes a welcome comeback from an album that cast doubt over its career. Odin’s ravens may not fly as high as on Heading Northe, but at least they’re soaring again. Get this at the local kiosk or DYE IN A FYRE!

From their second album Northern Rage on I was a huge fan of Stormwarrior, with their unabashedly teutonic approach to power metal and up to their last one two years ago, Heathen Warrior, they managed to maintain this high level of quality and then kind of hit a brickwall. Heathen Warrior still had the right ingredients, but somehow did not manage to hit home. So I was hoping that Thunder & Steele (what is it with them and adding “e” to the end of their words???) would be a return to form and a reinstatement of the warrior at the forefront of teutonic power metal.

And it did not take me too long to figure out that while being another good album, Thunder & Steele once more is not the highflyer I had hoped for and that the band is capable of producing, I am afraid. All the ingredients are still there, traditional riffing, pumping bass, tight rhythm section, Lars Ramcke’s characteristic voice, yet somehow something is missing, the spark that ignites the fire into a thundering inferno, like on Northern Rage and Heading Northe.

The title track breaks out of the speakers without even a hint of an intro, bringing us standard uptempo Stormwarrior fare. Track 4 brings the first real highlight in the form of “Ironborn”, which has a slightly more epic list and a very memorable chorus that’s been haunting me for days now.

Sure, material such as bass-heavy “Metal Avenger”, “Steelcrusader”, “Child of Fyre” or “One Will Survive” are quality stuff and there is nothing really wrong with them, yet they fail to go to the next level. I have listened to Thunder & Steele over and over again to find out what it was and the only thing I could put my finger on were the vocal/chorus arrangements that did not fully come through.

Courtesy of Piet Sielck, the production is great and the album is definitely a step up from the previous effort, very solid power metal with a rougher edge, highly cliched lyrics and not a disappointment in the end, just not quite where it could be.

- T R A C K L I S T -

01. Thunder & Steele
02. Metal Avenger
03. Sacred Blade
04. Ironborn
05. Steelcrusader
06. Fyres In The Nighte
07. Die By The Hammer
08. Child Of Fyre
09. One Will Survive
10. Servants Of Metal

Format: 320 mp3
Genre: Power Metal
Size: 102.61 MB