STORMBURNER – First-class True Heavy Metal
For a long time, I was waiting for the debut album “Shadow Rising” by the guys from STORMBURNER! At the beginning of this year the appetizer “Men at Arms”
was released which completely blew me away! Because here they showed that you can play Heavy Metal of the old school, based on the True and Epic Metal Kings MANOWAR.
If this hint with the fence post was not enough, then you could also win Ken Kelly for the cover artwork, which has already designed quite a few Manowar artworks.
With Ex STARBLIND fronter Mike Stark you also have a fronter in his ranks that should fit perfectly with the mentioned musical direction!
So blabbering enough, we now devote ourselves directly to the music in the form of the opener “We Burn”. And here the true heavy metal club is swung directly and without much ado! A great opener that immediately makes clear where the journey is going stylistically and will bring tears of joy to True Metalhead’s eyes.
The following “Metal in the Night” is similarly convincing, even if it can not quite tie in qualitatively to the opener.
But these little draws more than make up for the next tracks! Since we have the title track “Shadow Rising” in which the chorus is not out of ears soon after, the varied “Demon Fire” which sounds wonderfully epic from the speakers and the pre-released single “Men at Arms” where you just just want to tune into the chorus and stretch your fists in the air! Only the chorus of “Ragnarök” remains a bit negative in the memory due to the finally endless repetition, but that is complaining at a high level, because otherwise this middle part belongs to the best in the field of True Heavy Metal in recent times, Point!
And even with the last tracks you do not allow yourself many slip-ups anymore, stylistically it is always in the mix between Epic and True Heavy Metal that you can mow without any problems into the auditory canals of the mentioned Genrefans!
Absolute musical highlights are definitely “Eye of the Storm”, “Into the Storm” and “Ode to War”
Conclusion :
Incredible! Shortly before the end of the year 2019, the guys from STORMBURNER throw a first-class true heavy metal album onto the market with their debut album and should have saved the year for many Genrefans!
The comparison to the over-fathers MANOWAR comes not by chance what is also due to the first-class vocals of frontman Mike Stark, who is much stronger here than at his STARBLIND times.
In short, an absolutely first-class debut album, which should hopefully be found on one or the other year’s list
(9/10)
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