adg211288 Thunder & Steele (2014) is the fifth full-length album by German power metal act Stormwarrior. It is the first album to feature new drummer Jörg Uken who replaces Hendrik Thiesbrummel who drummed on the band's previous album Heathen Warrior (2011). Some versions of the album include a cover of Warrant's The Enforcer as a bonus track.

There's a certain brand of power metal that is undeniably recognisable as German power metal and that's exact the sort of thing that Stormwarrior have delivered on Thunder & Steele. The sound of the album admittedly comes across as being imitative rather than innovative, sounding very much in the same vein as early power metal that still had some crossover with its parent genre, speed metal. Think of early Blind Guardian with a dash of early Helloween (when Kai Hansen sang for them) and its pretty easy to arrive at what Thunder & Steele sounds like. It's delivered very convincingly though, which is what matters most at the end of the day, resulting in a fun and catchy guitar driven power metal record with plenty of speed and energy. The band get straight down to business and don't waste time with any cliché features such as ballads, narration or intro/interlude type tracks. The opening title track is definite one of the best songs on the album, a perfect way of getting the album going.

If there's a negative point to be made about Thunder & Steele, the lyrics do come across as being rather cheesy. They display what can only be described as a true metal mentality by including songs with metal in the title (Metal Avenger, Servants of Metal) and the instance of spelling words their way, like the extra e's in the album title and other song titles, and spelling words like fire as fyre (Fyres in the Nighte, Child of Fyre). This is how it's always been with Stormwarrior though so is hardly anything new. For those of us who don't really care about lyrical themes it won't be an issue, but it may be going too far for other kinds of listener, despite the abundant quality heard in the music itself.

Cheesy or not, the end result is a pretty epic experience in my view and as my first experience with Stormwarrior's music it's definitely made me a fan of the band and I have already started to look into their previous releases. They play the kind of power metal that I love the most and they do it the right way. I think that maybe their earlier album Heading Northe (2008) had a little more depth to it though, but that doesn't make Thunder & Steele an any less enjoyable release to my ears. Their approach will undoubtedly be too much by the book for some listeners, but for fans of classic German style power/speed metal Thunder & Steele comes highly recommended.

90/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/stormwarrior-thunder-steele-t3519.html)

Time Signature Og metallen hæves til slag...

Genre: power metal

Imagine if Helloween and Running Wild fell in love and mated, and had a love child, and their offspring would convert to Nordic Ásatrú, then the result might well be Stormwarrior.

Stormwarrior's style is German power metal with very clear influences from German metal legends Running Wild and Helloween, combining the formers more traditional metal-inspired power metal style with the latter's epic-sounding power metal style. And if you, like me, have a weakness for 80s Helloween and Running Wild, then this combination of influences ain't bad at all.

Stylistically, Stormwarrior combine the epic choruses and the uplifting energy of European power metal (prevalent in tracks like "Heathen Warrior", "Bloode to Bloode" og "Ravenhearte") with more traditional metal riffage and galloping basslines (prevalent in tracks like "Ride of Asgard", den Iron Maiden-inspirerede "Heirs to the Fighte" og "Fyre & Ice"), and then there are guitar harmonies galore, which is something I have always been a fan of.

Stormwarrior appear to be very fascinated with viking lore and Norse Mythology, many of their songs focusing on vikings, the glory of battle, Nordic gods and other Norse mythical and mythological creatures - and, needless to say, this goes well with the whole atmosphere of power metal.

With the lyrical content and the pseudo-Middle-English spelling in song titles, this is larger-than-life power metal, and that is how it should be appreciated. And, what is more, it is very well done larger-than-life power metal, which has all the elements that make brilliant German power metal (even the singer's German accent adds a sense of authenticity). Maybe it takes some listens to get used to his voice, which sounds a bit like a mix of Kai Hansen, Biff Byford and Mark Shelton - but, I really like the strange quality his voice has.

If you like German power metal with lots of energy and a relatively low degree of cheesiness but a high dose of larger-than-lifeness, then I think you will enjoy this album immensely.

(review originally posted on progfreak.com)