Stormage is a power metal band from Germany, originally forming in 1996 as Anthem, changing their name to Stormage in 2003, releasing the band’s debut album ‘Balance Of Power’ in 2005, and its sophomore album ‘Sudden Awakening’ two years later in 2007. The band came onto my radar in 2017 with the release of their third album, ‘Dead Of Night’ – an infectious and highly head bang-able offering. Six years have now passed by. The band is making a spectacular return with ‘Ashes Of Doom’ (released in 2023) – a barnstorming twelve-song rampage…
…across an hour of power comes traditional heavy metal! The band are in a feisty mood, delivering fast-paced metal to wreck the necks of every single metalhead from all around the world. ‘Overture Of The Abyss’ is a one-minute crescendo building atmosphere intensifying, tense instrumental that leads straight into the album opener proper, the ferociously fast-paced ‘Beyond The Horizon’, adopting a slight progressive stance as it gets fully underway. Hitting hard and stomping harder, Stormage are in a mean mood, oozing more force and devastation than a thousand wrecking balls in full flight – the six-year wait for new material is well worth it! And keeping the heaviness heavy, ‘Deniers Of Reality’ assumes the identity of anthemic metal, pounding the ground hard with vicious intent, opening great big fucking rifts that threaten to suck in everyone and everything! An explosive opening one-two that is simply red hot!
And ‘Ashes Of Doom’ just gets hotter and hotter, with the all-out ferocity of ‘Fierce As A Dragon’ – the level of intensity sharply shooting upwards! The band’s meld of power come with traditional heavy metal is terrific, Stormage even blending in a little thrash metal aggression, ‘Fierce As A Dragon’ one of those amazing genre-hopping songs – attractive to a very wide array of metallers! With momentum rolling like a child’s ball down a park slide, ‘Slide On Your Knees’ brings a touch of the epic style of power metal, and a regal elegance not heard so far. But boy, the heaviness remains very much in force, Stormage refusing to lighten the mood, defiantly standing at the heavier end of the metal genre! With no sign of a breather, the album storms on with the bustling pace and power of ‘Our Latest Endeavour’, once more stretching into the progressive metal pond – the band mixing together every style of metal they have in their arsenal. A superb first-half album – I just wonder where the second half is gonna go!
I don’t have to wonder for very long, ‘Ashes Of Doom’ moving on with (I presume the title song) ‘Ashes Of My Doom’ – crawling into life on the back of mellowness and serenity with a soulful vocal performance! An anthemic hymn-like nature fills the air, Stormage creating one hell of an epic atmosphere, also providing listeners with a little break from the relentless barrage of heavy metal up to this point. So take deep breaths, readers (and listeners), for the metal is ready to rocket again, this time in the shape of the six minutes plus ‘The Spirit Never Dies’, introduced with a short clip of the theme tune to The Itchy & Scratchy Show – a cartoon that appears occasionally in the animated sitcom The Simpsons. ‘The Spirit Never Dies’ is a fast-paced and highly head-bangable slab of all-out heavy metal – featuring the iconic gallop and famous “foot on the monitor” feel of old-school metal. Fucking awesome! And even more awesome, is just how incredibly bombastic ‘Blood Shot Eyes’ is – definitely much more than any other song on offer! The oomph is phenomenal, the band delivering a song that’ll appeal to hard rockers as well as heavy metallers.
And now for something I’m sure the young (Norse God) Thor heard many times when helping his dad Odin with some DIY – ‘Put The Hammer Down’ a cacophony of electrifying speed and power! The band are at their fastest here, roaring across the land at incredible velocity, devastating everything and everyone in sight! The level of aggression is sky-high, ‘Put The Hammer Down’ is a menacing march of metal! This album has just gotten better and better with every passing song, ‘Son Of Hatred’ strongly maintaining that trend – Stormage resuming the bustling nature of earlier. And with the final song appearing over the horizon, ‘Ashes Of Doom’ has been a phenomenal journey, forcing its way into contention for the Album Of The Year title. ‘The Wind Will Take Us Home’ closes the album with the same regal elegance as heard earlier, but with added majesty! The epic and glory styles of metal blend perfectly with the band’s root power come traditional heavy metal sound – a barnstorming final hurrah that perfectly rounds off a very good album.
Overall, an infectious gallop of high-intensity heavy metal, full of pace and power with incredible head-bang ability.
TRACKLIST
Overture Of The Abyss (instrumental)
Beyond The Horizon
Deniers Of Reality
Fierce As A Dragon
Slide On Your Knees
Our Latest Endeavour
Ashes Of My Doom
The Spirit Never Dies
Blood Shot Eyes
Put The Hammer Down
Son Of Hatred
The Wind Will Take Us Home
Stormage: Facebook
Release Year: 2023
Label: El Puerto Records
Category: Album
Country: Canada
Reviewed by Iron Mathew for Frenzy Fire and Metal-Roos.
