Stormwarrior-Heathen Warrior

True Metal
2011

Germany's Stormwarrior formed back in 1998. After a few demos they put out their first EP in 2001 and since then they have steadily been knocking out albums. This is fairly standard, but energetic power metal with some speed metal mixed in. Musically this album is similar to the heavyweights of the genre Helloween and Gamma Ray. Tracks like "Heirs to the fighte" and "The Returne" demonstrate their knack for blending melodies in with speed and heavy rhythms. Plenty of bands in the style know how to kick off a song in strong fashion, but not everyone can carry it the distance. Stormwarrior not only carry the song, but they keep the songs fresh and keep the ideas coming. I was listening to this album on headphones and was loving how I could each bass note contributing and I really appreciated their attention to detail. This is definitely for power metal for the not so patient fan because this band doesn't fool around instead they just continuously move forward with little build-up or wasted time. My only complaint is that the vocals don't always have enough force to keep up with the music. Still power metal fans are likely to be thrilled by the latest offering from this veteran act.