Brainstorm - Wall of Skulls Review

Didn’t I tell you my fan that record companies agree on the day of releasing some bands? I’ve always had this impression as I was getting and reviewing the same style of band for the same release date. Bulls eye! They really do it and I can say it for sure after these five years here writing those dreadful reviews I write for you my fan, dear child of the night. This friday – the day of the week for Metal releases. Well, I guess only for Metal. – the 17th of September we’ve got two Power Metal bands in a role. Also this week we had a sequence of big guns bands in the same role. Too much coincidence. Just saying.

Brainstorm are a well-known band for us here at Metal Addicts as we reviewed their 2018’s “Midnight Ghost” album and posted a series of news about them. I do remember reviewing this album and the emotion I had when I was writing it. The band is good. Very good. Their Power Metal sounds a bit more like as Judas Priest’s “Painkiller” era than anything. I am not really sure if it’s possible to label them as Power Metal, but I guess this label woudn’t be that wrong at all. Well, for the record, some people label Judas Priest’s “Painkiller” as Power Metal. But the resemblance with that harder facete of Judas Priest is true. Brainstorm mean business.

Opening track “Chamber Thirteen” is the classic opening track butchery with the killer riffing and the inspired drumming. The kind of track that makes the Metal fan headbang non-stop. Not to mention the singalong chorus and the anthemic ‘Oooooooo’ that chills me in the bones. The perfect track. What makes Brainstorm so interesting is their virtue of combining cadenced tracks with faster ones. Following track “Where Ravens Fly” is more than cadenced, it’s moody. It has that cadence and rhythm that makes the Metal fan bang the head slowly but constantly until the end of it. Or the end of times. Too much? Maybe. “Wall of Skulls” has this characteristic or virtue depending on whatever you may roam, my dear child of the night. For me it’s virtue. It’s one of the old school of Metal features that I like the most. This mix of tempos and cadences. Brainstorm do it marvelously. And they never leave the singalong chorusus away. I have to say that the choruses in “Wall of Skulls” are the most impressing sequence of choruses I’ve ever heard here in this important industry. Really impressive. Never forget the Queenrÿsche esque ballad “Glory Disappears.”

Brainstorm “Wall of Skulls” will be released on September 17th via AFM Records.

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