Stormhammer – Welcome To the End

[nyrating]

26th March 2017 Reinier de Vries Album Reviews 0

There are several bands with the word storm in it. This one is a German band releasing their sixth album. When I volunteered to review this album, I made a little mistake. I only read the band name and the genre power metal and somehow in my brain I thought about the band Stormwarrior, also a German band playing power metal. But, when I started to listen, I realized this was a bit different band. Stormwarrior has Helloween and Gamma Ray as main influences. Stormhammer a lot less.

The music is definitely power metal, but not the happy version. At times there are some thrash influences, and even a harsh vocal part passes by in ‘Spirit Of the Night.’ I would say they sound more like Mystic Prophecy. With twelve songs and two intro’s on the album, adding up to a playing time of almost 65 minutes, there’s a lot for the fan to enjoy. But, sometimes a lot is a little bit too much. For me, the music is not original and special enough to keep my focus for the entire spin. That doesn’t make it a bad album, I think it is their best to date. But, because they just follow the paved path, it just isn’t special enough.

Stormhammer has all the ingredients needed to keep German heavy/fast power metal fans happy!

Tracklist:

01. The Beginning Of the End
02. Northman
03. Welcome To the End
04. The Heritage
05. Secret
06. The Law
07. Watchmen
08. Road To Heaven
09. My Dark Side
10. Into the Night
11. Spirit Of the Night
12. Soul Temptation
13. The Awakening
14. Black Dragon

Playing time: 64:54

Release date: 24 March 2017

Label: Massacre Records

Website: www.stormhammer.de

About Reinier de Vries 188 Articles

Once a metal head, always a metalhead. My parents thought it would only be a period, but they were wrong. I quit to explain the beauty of metal music to others that are not into metal, because it is something you can't tell in words... It is like explaining to a teetotaller why a cold beer is so nice on a hot day... I started with bands like Accept, Metal Church, Iron Maiden and Metallica in the eighties and I think I will still listen to them when I'm stone deaf and old...