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Clearly a strong album hurt largely through a rather bad production or mastering job.-
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| StormWarrior: Heathen Warrior |
Power Metal, Speed Metal
Massacre Records
May 27th, 2011 / October 25th, 2011 (US)
- ...Og Hammeren Haeves Til Slag... - 0:44
- Heathen Warrior - 4:59
- The Ride of Asgard - 4:39
- Heirs to the Fighte - 5:21
- Bloode to Bloode - 4:26
- Fyre & Ice - 4:11
- The Returne - 5:19
- Wolven Nights - 4:46
- Ravenhearte - 3:19
- The Valkyries Call - 4:46
- And Northern Steele Remaineth - 6:00
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| Review Information |
Release length: 48:31
Review posted on November 6th, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 4.5/10 |
 
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
StormWarrior (2002) • Nortern Rage (2004) • Heading Northe (2008) • Heathen Warrior (2011)
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| EP(s): |
Possessed by Metal (2001) • Spikes and Leather (2002) • Heavy Metal Fire (2003) • Odens Krigare (2004)
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| Demo(s): |
Metal Victory (1998) • Barbaric Steel (1999)
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| Live CD(s): |
At Foreign Shores - Live in Japan (2006) • If It's Not in Your Bloode... You Will never Understande! (2011)
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| DVD(s): |
If It's Not in Your Bloode... You Will never Understande! (2011)
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| Review |
Formed back in 1998, StormWarrior has put out a good deal of releases throughout the years, having three full-length efforts since 2002 and EPs surpassing that to a total of four since 2001. For 2011, the Power/Speed Metal group returned to the studio to record their fourth full-length release, Heathen Warrior. And before the review even begins, I want to make one thing known that plays a pivotol role in my review: I hate auto tuned vocals, and loathe anything that remotely sounds like they have been tweaked in the studio as it takes away from the impact the actual talent of the band makes, as well as just generally gives me a migraine. This being said, how does Heathen Warrior stack up in my professional standards?
The audio quality to Heathen Warrior is pretty foggy, giving it a bit of a rawer sound that early Power metal acts would have had to contend to. So, aside giving the music a good nostalgic trait in the audio, the instruments themselves sound pretty good and geared towards it. The drums have a nice echo on the tight snares the come through loudly, but more as if in the background, though the bass kicks sound right in your face yet lower in volume with a bit of a click to them. The cymbols are the same as the snares in distance but still a bit lower in volume and sometimes drowned out by the guitars that are pretty loud and feel closer then the drum kit does. They also feel rather heavy with a more blunt edge outside the cleaner guitar that seems hidden by the distorted riffs in the mix outside the solo. The bass is present and obvious in the recording, coming through like you would expect with an early Heavy Metal or Speed Metal sound, adding a catchier groove to the guitar chords that at times feels more important then the guitars to the mix. But, the problem is that everything is pretty low in volume outside those kicks and the bass that, sometimes, they are playing but all you pick up on are the kicks, snares, and bass guitar. It's not a bad idea for the audio quality to focus on these, but in the end it just makes for the music to sound bad with things clashing with one another due to the volume levels.
Of course the vocals are perhaps the most infuriating part of the album. There's two layers of vocals, a background layer, as well as a cleaner yet somewhat nasal louder layer (but not by much) that sounds like there's some auto tuning going on to make it match the notes of the music. This is perhaps thanks to what little distortion is used, as well as the layering dual vocals that appear constantly, whether the lead and background vocalist together or just layered lead vocals, and really seem to clash. "The Ride of Asgard" makes for the first track to really give off that auto tuned vibe to the vocals that are just not mixed well together at all on the album with what can be described as some mumbled moments and plenty of back of the throat failed low falsetto attempts that sound god awful, both giving it an auto tuned sense that really sticks out compared to later more powerful vocal performances like with "Fyre & Ice." Of course, much of this is probably due to the delay on the echo to the vocals, but there's always the option of it actually being auto tuned.
This becomes heavily apparent in the aforementioned "The Ride of Asgard," which you can kind of explain away as bad production, but "Heathen Warrior" shows it perfectly with a more digital, pixelated-esque sound commonly found on auto tuning, but more in a minimal fashion that shows the group trying to hide it. The chorus to this song is horrible, the vocals clash terribly and sound so out of synch with one another, as well as off key with the music which is hysterical given that it clearly sounds auto tuned which is usually what is used to make tone deaf singers sound like they are on pitch with the music making it all just laughable. The only saving grace here is the solid Power Metal behind the vocals that would make you even want to jump into that chorus and sing along despite the faults of the vocals, though the bass should have been a little deeper then the louder, higher tone that it has, causing it to make less of an impact. Of course this works for the more Speed Metal soaked material like "The Ride of Asgard" which has a little more focus on speed then melody outside the rather impressive guitar solo.
This ends up being the trend throughout the album, and honestly the less energetic vocal performances here are the ones that really stand out. Musically speaking, the album sounds pretty good. "Heirs to the Fighte" and even "The Ride of Asgard" sound pretty strong with the traditional fantastic Power Metal riffs and drumming. However, "Bloode to Bloode" does an exceptional job thanks to that more restrained vocal approach. The only gripe here is the very deep spoken word sections that are so hard to understand and really just seem tacked on and serve no real purpose to the song. "Fyre & Ice" also makes for an enjoyable track of solid Power Metal that even seems a little stronger vocally without any auto tuning, or something that sounds like it. The vocals are patterned out well that they don't clash or have too much going at once, and leads to a generally strong track. Even "Ravenhearte" sounds great thanks to it's heavy Speed Metal influence, though the echoing effect at times clearly gets overused in the chorus, but it's just a slight issue that could be overlooked easily here. The music's intensity works well with the additional melodic fantasy-driven Power Metal influence and really stands out as one of the more impressive cuts off the album.
Despite all the harsh words said about the album, Heathen Warrior is not a bad release. It just suffers from a lot of bad luck on the audio quality level. Whether or not there is auto tuning is really not something that could be explained here through just listening to this one since it's not so obvious like much of modern day "music" where people who get behind a microphone and make off key noises then run through that process who call themselves singers, but it sounds like it. There's a lot of clashing going on, especially in those vocals, and even in the music. The bass is a bit too high pitched to make much of a difference to the music, but the old-scholol NWOBHM bass presence is something you can still appreciate given the band's attempt to go with an early Metal sound. There are some good tracks that do appear around the half way point, such as "Fyre & Ice" and "Ravenhearte," and even the music of "The Ride of Asgard" is enjoyable. Heathen Warrior is an album that is worth looking into, but you really can't go into it expecting a lot from ir. It's clear StormWarrior really is giving it their all, as there's a good deal of energy here, but in the end the overall product greatly hurts the band and leaves an album that has some impressive material, but many other tracks that just sound bad.
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