ELVENSTORM – Soulreaper review

ELVENSTORM – Soulreaper

Inferno Records

http://elvenstorm-metal.wix.com/elvenstorm

In 2014 ELVENSTROM released their sophomore full length album entitled “Bloods Lead to Glory”. It is an album based on the tradition of 80’s Teutonic melodic heavy/power and speed metal. The band never hid their love for this kind of sound and they actually do a very good job at it, since they know the way to compose such kind of music. It seems that ELVENSTORM had inspiration for a couple more songs and wanted to make them a gift to their fans. The result of their inspiration is the MCD under the title “Soulreaper”.

THE COVER: The cover of the new album is plain and yet dark and I can say that it has a touch of the occult. It shows a pentagram with a circle and in front of it a skull in chains. It is a quite impressive and imposing painting through its simplicity.

MUSICAL STYLE: I don’t have much to add, since I have already presented the previous releases of the band here. ELVENSTORM love the 80’s heavy/power and speed metal of the German scene and it is obvious that among their influences are such bands like RUNNING WILD, HELLOWEEN (early) and of course some modern bands like STORMWARRIOR and their compatriots LONEWOLF. They also have a female singer whose way of singing brings to mind singers like Doro and Jutta (ZED YAGO). So, if you like your heavy metal full of speed and melody these are your guys.  

COMPOSITIONS: The MCD of ELVENSTORM consists of 4 songs from which the 2 ones under the title “Soulreaper” and “Sworn to the Dark” continue the musical tradition of the band. They are compositions that combine melody and speed and lots of RUNNING WILD and early HELLOWEEN influences. Actually they have a raw and yet melodic sound which is the specialty of the band. I want to add here that these 2 compositions also have a slight U.S. metal touch that brought to my mind such band as SAVAGE GRACE. The other 2 songs are “Tyrants”, a HEAVEN’S GATE cover which the band has actually managed to make it sound like their own song and “Black Magic” a SLAYER cover which is close to the original and yet they have given to it a female touch.     

CONCLUSION: All in all I have to say that ELVENSTORM stay faithful to their sound and influences and offer a MCD that can be played loud, sung along and used to bang your head. I think that these were their intentions when they were creating this mini album and they can be happy because they still manage to deliver the goods.

Nick “Verkaim” Parastatidis