A very stormy affair.
Granted, my first thought when I wrote this review was this: does the Metal community really need another troupe with a stormy noun in their band name and another, again superbly designed by Ken Kelly (MANOWAR, KISS, RAINBOW) MANOWAR Memory Cover? The simple as well as unequivocal answer after receiving the STORMBURNER debut album “Shadow Rising” is: Yes!
The Swedish-born quintet serves his listeners finest, catchy, melodic heavy metal with hymnic choruses in the style of their compatriot LECHERY. For song titles like ‘Ragnarök’, ‘Men At Arms’, ‘Eye Of The Storm’ ‘Rune Of The Gods’ or ‘Ode To War’, the well-chosen comparisons with the “Four Kings Of Metal” are not enough, of course From my point of view, it is also absolutely not reprehensible, since MANOWAR has long since stopped supplying high quality material in good regularity. Especially the titles mentioned here have this special epic, how the old heroes used to be so formidable in their songs. With their not-so-self-defeating vocalist Mike Stark, whose vocals are hugely influenced by Eric Adams, the troupe has an extra ace up its sleeve.
Due to his vocals, which are almost too thick at times, the good one loses sight of one or the other melody, but gives the songs that certain something and gives them a high recognition value. In addition, he occasionally uses his distinctive voice as an instrument. He does not sing lyrics, but simply humming or screaming to the tune (very easy to listen to in ‘Ragnarök’), which I personally like very much. Since Christmas is known to be just around the corner, I recommend “Shadow Rising” to all Warriors, who prefer to hang their Christmas tree with saw blades and genuine steel chains instead of bullets and tinsel and enjoy the matching punch or mulled wine in the loincloth, bawling from the horn.
In addition, the album thanks to the successful production of Ronny Hemlin (TAD MOROSE, STEEL ATTACK) on the necessary eggs and should not seriously disappoint with his ten atmospheric, traditional Epic Heavy Metal numbers fan of this genre.
(8,5/10)
Read the review at Powermetal.de (In German)