Messenger
Starwolf - Pt. II: Novastorm

Messenger from Germany returns with the second part of the pirate epos from space, this second part is called Novastorm. The first part wasn’t exactly a masterpiece of epic proportions; in fact it wasn’t very epic at all. I would describe it as the space pirates of their story have stolen riffs, choruses and melodies from some famous artists; the best song was even stolen in its entirety. Now two years has elapsed since that album and they have presented their loot in an EP earlier this year and now they return with their space epic about their space pirates – and they do so with an album that has a really attractive artwork.

It is power metal inspired by famous bands, especially from the German nation, bands like Helloween, Gamma Ray, Iron Savior and Running Wild are a few that can be mentioned. Catchy choruses along with the classical power chords in familiar order and some catchy riffs and choirs. Hardly groundbreaking and very German, but also with good variation and well weighted material in most regards. You can easily play through the album without vomiting. Decent vocalist is another thing I notice and I think they have a really good production for this album. Sure it is quite typical German heavy/power metal and one could want some more surprising ideas and a more spacey musical performance, but I think most people will agree that it is a decent production.

Compared with the predecessor this album is by far more interesting, it has a better character and does feel like something more than just a mishmash of parts stolen from other band’s songs. It is also less bland and boring, it is a fairly dynamic album with good songs and I would characterise it as rather entertaining. Thumbs up for this one even though it wouldn’t have hurt to give the album a more spacey character to convey the theme better, and speaking of the theme it is not that clear that this is a conceptual album as it is more focused on the songs than on the story which I think is not right when making a musical story in several parts. I also think that they could still make something of an effort in order to make their music more of their own than just making it to a format, this time it becomes less bothersome though as the songs are much better this time.

In general all the songs on the album are good, catchy and entertaining but if I am to hold up any one song over the others it have to be Wings of Destiny that is my highlight of the album. It is a song that besides being the third song also is fitting well into the concept, more so than most of the songs. Also worthy of mention is the one called Captain’s Loot (not part of the EP with the same name) as it is also a very likeable song. Overall I would say that this is better than its predecessor, a solid album that I as a critic has to point out is a bit lacking in the department of own, new and fresh ideas – so hardly innovative but still quite entertaining.

HHHHHHH