Sweden always had an ever growing Metal scene that seems to be expanding no matter what music trends come and go. Almost every Swedish band has its share of the pie and as far as i am concerned its quite fair since every band upholds some kind of quality standards.
STORMBURNER, as you might have guessed, come from Stockholm, Sweden and it is the newest addiction to an arsenal of great power metal bands, since their debut album “Shadow Rising” is quite good.
Most members of STORMBURNER have been around here and there with various metal projects, most noticeable being STEEL ATTACK and STARBLIND. And at some point both bands have been a source of inspiration for STORMBURNER, yet the band manages to manifest a great deal of influences into their songs. From MANOWAR to JUDAS PRIEST and BLOODBOUND to MANIMAL, STORMBURNER amazed me with their songs.
Songs like “Ragnarök”, “Shadow Rising” or “Metal In the Night” show a great deal of inspiration, no matter their simplistic structure, while tracks like “Eye of the Storm“, “Demon Fire” and “Into the Storm“ show a lot of German influences, which of course are welcome.
However the album does hove some unneeded moments for example the cheesy “Men at Arms” or “Rune of the Dead” with an overwhelming Hammerfall vibe, which is not something wrong but it didn’t work for me, since I’d rather they focused on more aggressive (not modern) stuff.
Mr. Stark delivers a stunning vocal performance while the rhythm section keep the engine running. The production is loud and clear and last but not least the cover art (Ken Kelly) adds an epic flavor to the package.
To sum up I’d say that if you are into Judas Priest worshiping, classic Heavy Metal and Teutonic European -mainly German- Power Metal this album will not let you down. I don’t know if its a breakthrough album yet, but for sure it is a value for money and a decent purchase.
You can check the discussion about the band on our forum pages.
