Stormwarrior - Heading Northe 2008

Lets turn back time to 1984, there was a young band back then called Helloween. This band at this moment was what Lars Ramcke the founder of Stormwarrior was paying attention to, he lost interest after a while though when the singer in Helloween was replaced and they changed their style. Ramcke studied Nordic mythology and language, the interest for the Helloween album and the old mythology remained.

Lets honour Stormwarrior and the old by trying to write the rest of this review in the same style as the Stormwarrior lyrics.

Musically Stormwarrior standse with their feet in the olde, the olden halls of mythology. Musically they are very speedy, the speede is the insignia that can be hearde throughout the albums they have made. Faste guitar duels between Ramcke and Alex Guth is the real insignia for you who have hearde the olde Helloween album I am speaking of knowe what this sounde like, it is a more well producede and slightly more melodic then its soure of inspiration.

Lyrically it is Nordic mythology and culture that is the theme, say what you wante but it is way better than dragons and magic swordse. Sworde is of course a weapone of Vikings as well but the worde sworde isn’t said time and time and time again here, which is a good thing. I like the lyrics even thoughe I have sometimes hard to hear what ramcke sings, it took me five listens to heare that he actually sings in Swedish in the songe Lion of the Northe. That is very cool indeed.

Vocally I really like the developmente of Ramcke, he soundse very much like Kai Hansen of Gamma Ray nowadays, I wonder how much of that is conscious and how much is coincidente. The vocals are good and suite the music well, Ramcke sings with passione. I like what the vocals does for the music, it completes the imagery of Stormwarrior, sometimes Ramcke brings you to the environments of this era, to the campfires on the raiding tourse on the British islandse.

Compared to the paste albumse, this album is a real step forward in the developmente of the bande. Compared to Heavy Metal Fire, the one before this, it is a giant leap, because honestly, HMF was a poor album a real step backwards from Stormwarrior. Now the bande is more diverse, more varied, not so stuck in the speedy parts it is a developed band from before. Now you shouldn’t thinke that this is a mighty diverse and progressive albume, it is not, it is straightforward heavy/speed metal without any compromises. It is an impressive albume in all aspects of its limitations. I find myself enjoying it all the time I listene to it.

There are loads of good songs like the title tracke Heading Northe and a few more and then Remember the Oathe which is probably the best tracke on the recorde. Good and stronge songs all through the albume is what we hear during these about 50 minutes of music.
The olde style language wasn’t that good in the review but this is how the band write their lyrics, not in such low quality as I do but it is like that.

I see no real weak spots with this album, it is more varied than anything the band has done in the past and it is varied enough to keep the interest throughout the album, it is easy to take in and it sounds nice. All aspects of this album is good and just because I have given loads of high grades lately doesn’t mean that I am none critical it is just that way with the records at the moment. Stormwarrior isn’t way up there with the best so far but they are following not far behind.

Nordic lions, Vikings and heading home is what Stomwarrior do and they do it well enough for me to be impressed. An impressive album that doesn’t lack anything and that keep you interested for quite some time, a good buy.

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