In the style of their role models, Manowar, the Swedish band Stormburner hits out a classic True Metal album with “Shadow Rising”. Even the driving opener with a battle cry chorus, “We Burn”, comes out of the boxes and should hit the steel heart of the genre community. It continues with the pounding “Metal In The Night”, with the shouter Mike Stark playing out his entire and absolutely not insignificant voice volume.
After the slightly groovy title track, “Demon War” shows atmospheric features from the beginning of the track, so that – like in most songs – there is a polyphonic refrain. After further typical representatives, whereby the almost arrow-fast “Eye Of The Storm” particularly stands out, the five boys with the almost seven-minute “Rune Of The Dead” have once again unpacked a neat and epic caliber.
The final point, however, is the truly graceful “Ode To War” and thus delivers the festive conclusion of this strong longplayer, whereby, in addition to the lack of originality, only the somewhat in need of improvement sound can be identified as slight criticisms.
(7,5/10)
Review by Marcus Peters
Read the review at Crossfire-Metal.de (In German)