Stronger than Heaven

At some point after the release of Stormwitch's sophomore album "Tales of Terror", the band underwent a stylistic change. Out with the leather and studded wristbands, in with the stylish Baroque overcoats. Not a bad change if you ask me, this more flamboyant and sophisticated-looking fashion was bound to help the band stand out in the crowd of studded leather and tight pants. But with the wardrobe change also came a subtle musical change, which began creeping in on the boisterously-titled "Stronger Than Heaven" LP. Although certainly not without merit, this release has a miasma of "transitional effort" about it.

As far as strong points go, "Jonathan's Diary" makes a very compelling case for its album. Again we are treated to Iron Maiden-adjacent "literature metal" that checks all the right boxes. From the instrumentation that doesn't treat the bass guitar as only there symbolically to the engrossing tale of Jonathan Harker's encounter with Dracula, this 7 minute long yarn was quite possibly the best song that Stormwitch had composed up to that point. "Ravenlord" stands out as a benchmark of power metal with a heavy attitude, its aggressive guitar and pounding drums immediately drawing you in while its catchy chorus and solo seal the deal. And the guitar work is showcased especially well on the album's last two songs; "Allies of the Dark" stands out by its neoclassical elements ("Toccata and Fugue in D minor", that seminal piece that stands out to some as the spooky organ music that plays at Halloween, and to others as the entrance music of WCW wrestler Mortis), while "Dorian Gray" serves as an elaborate instrumental piece with nary a dull moment.

So what could possibly hold an album with such enjoyable offerings back? Well, much of said album's remainder. "Rats in the Attic" is utterly forgettable, "Eternia" (not about Masters of the Universe, apparently) shows potential for a highly atmospheric piece but falls short of really capitalizing on it, "Slave to Moonlight" doesn't sound bad but comes across as the less inspired sequel to "Werewolves on the Hunt". Whereas this album's choice cuts stand the test of time as being among Stormwitch's best material, with every band member performing his part admirably, the leftovers never really get off the ground. With the noted exception of the strong guitar delivery on "Slave to Moonlight", the usual Stormwitch inspiration strikes only sparingly and the tracks feel devoid of the energy and passion that we've grown accustomed to from the crafty krauts. Aside from the longest and best song, the cream of the crop has all been crammed at the tail end of the album, making it sound inconsistent compared to previous efforts. By far the worst offender is the title track itself. Now Stormwitch would write music about a variety of spooky subjects: vampires, werewolves, witches, pirates, etc. In the "Witches" folder, compare the songs "Walpurgis Night" and "Stronger Than Heaven"; the former oozes evil and menace, the lyrics actually succeed in sounding downright unsettling for a band not classified as a direct by-product of Venom or Bathory. It sounds like something you'd expect a medieval priest to terrify his congregation with, assuring compliance as the last line of defense against the inhuman acts that the local coven might threaten the villagers with. The latter reads a witch's grocery list to what is essentially the tune of "I Love It Loud" by Kiss, except that the Kiss song actually rocks...the caveat being that Kiss songs aren't frightening, I'm sorry. Its delivery is dry and monotonous, barely evoking any notable strength in spite of its name. Scorpions will burn the sky, "Stronger Than Heaven" will likely crash its broomstick into the church steeple.

"Stronger Than Heaven" joins a sizable list of albums that do in fact deserve to be listened to, if only for the handful of truly outstanding songs just waiting to be found among a crowd of average Joes. Its inconsistency drags it down and while it cannot be labeled as bad, it sticks out like a sore thumb among Stormwitch's first four full-lengths as the least remarkable overall.

Standout tracks: "Jonathan's Diary", "Ravenlord", "Allies of the Dark", "Dorian Gray"

Here we are my friends, on the page of the band that started it all in my life. Stormwitch marked the beginning of my metal journey, and they continue to amaze me every single time I listen to any of the first 4 releases they came up with. I would hesitate until the end of time if you asked me what's my favorite Stormwitch album, but this one's probably the one that comes closest to me naming it my one favorite.

If you aren't familiar, Stormwitch is a criminally underrated, easily the most underrated German heavy metal band there is. Despite that, their first 4 releases are all completely flawless, absolutely magnificent heavy metal traliblazers that pick up the gloves against any of the top tier heavy metal bands with no difficulty whatsoever. Sure, later on, they released some questionable albums, but the first 4 consecutive albums are yet to be rivaled by any other 4 consecutive albums in heavy metal history.

The strongest (no pun intended) link in the chain is this one. "Stronger Than Heaven" is the most complete, most well-rounded and outstanding manifestation of the band's musical identity. This is story-driven, atmospheric, medieval-reminiscent, yet highly conservative and traditional heavy metal at its absolute best. There is not a SECOND of weakness on this album, let alone an entire song.

Theoretically, this album should not work, because nearly all of the songs are very similar in structure. With the exception of the instrumental "Dorian Gray", all of the songs are mid-paced, they are arranged very similarly, and even the themes in the songs are similar. How the hell could this be any good, if they made the record one-sided?

Somehow, I wouldn't want to have it any other way. The fact of the matter is that Stormwitch is so unbelievably good at mid-paced, story-driven melodic heavy metal that my only issue with the record is that it ends too soon. When a band is this utterly unrivaled at nailing a specific style inside the genre of heavy metal, they should go ahead and write as many songs in that style as they'd like to. In this case, this band could easily back it up, and then some.

The main element through which Stormwitch operates is melody. It is the most prominent and utilized element in all Stormwitch albums, including this one. You know how some bands just kinda drag along and then they come alive in the chorus, make you remember the chorus only, and then fade out and get back to fumbling for meaning again with little to no direction or energy? Well, this record is not like that. Every single section, every riff, every vocal line is part of a magnificent flow of melodies that never stop coming at you for the entire 37 minutes of the album. There is no "best" song on here. There are no "highlights". How are you going to choose when every verse, every song and even every solo is as memorable as the last? It's the dictionary definition of impossible.

The riffs are unbelievably catchy, and they have a lot of creativity to them. These riffs are not some devoured, overused, recycled progressions we heard 700 times before. These are masterfully crafted, melodic, colorful, beautifully linked together riffs that are better at making you remember them than anything you've ever heard before. Not one note has been played that would've been unnecessary or a mistake. Even the solos are top of the line, with highly intelligent melodies instead of the mindless pentatonic shredding we're used to in this genre a lot of the times.

Then, there is Andy Mück, who has always been my favorite heavy metal vocalist. He's been gifted with a tone that's as amazing as it gets when you combine it with Stormwitch's music, but that's not his main advantage. The best thing about him is that he's an exceptionally trained and professional vocalist. He knows how, when and for how long to scream, quickly switch between high and low, carry melodic vocal lines, and more. He is THE heavy metal vocalist. No one does it better.

And while this record would still be one of the most incredible heavy metal records of all time with a worse production, this production has to be praised. This right here is the best produced heavy metal album I ever heard, hands down. And don't worry, I heard a couple of heavy metal albums before. The guitar tone is something to behold. It is so insanely precise, cutting edge, shiny and golden that it always takes up 70% of my attention, no matter how hard I try to appreciate other elements of the record. To balance things out, you have the bass rumbling in the background calmly on a completely different tone than the guitars, so that you can tell them apart. All of this is topped with a very sophisitcated and refined percussion that gives the record a really decent backbone and heaviness. It is absolutely perfect, production on a heavy metal record does not get better than this.

So there you have it. A classy, sophisticated, underground masterpiece practically nobody knows but the most hardcore heavy metal maniacs. I can not imagine listening to this with fresh ears as I know every single move by now. I probably heard this album over 400 times in my life but insanely enough, it gets better every time. It ages like fine wine. Whatever you need to do to make yourself remember that you gotta listen to at least a song of this record TODAY, do it. If you know it, you already know.

Well, let’s throw our minds back for a time being and recall some distant past when Germany was not a place of autobahns, sausages and misplaced guilt stemming from that angst-ridden 1930s/40s period, but rather to an olden age whence wizards and witches inhabited every moonlit forest, threatening idyllic peace and busty maidens, and when Witchfinders (before logic relegated them to society’s unemployment office) had free reign to exact whatever pricking they saw fit as to exact upon suspected minions of the Devil. Stormwitch, as their clichéd moniker might suggest, dwell upon all this and more. And armed with a copy of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and some of Hammer’s finest films they set out to conjure just these atmospheres of an earlier Europe ridden with superstition and, er, cottage industry.

The occult certainly wasn’t anything new to metal at this point, even considered somewhat of a cliché by 1986 (enough for certain thrash bands to move rather rapidly away from it, Megadeth, for instance). But I don’t really care what’s considered ‘old hat’ in music and I’ve always been interested by the different ways metal bands use the occult (not literally, of course! I don’t actually believe King Diamond speaks with the ghosts of the undead… though, he does and that’s the important part). Doom bands often use the occult as a representation of personal demons that trouble them (often from a seemingly Christian perspective), whereas other metal bands use it to symbolise a sense of rebellion and rejection of traditional values (Running Wild’s Gates to Purgatory, for example). Stormwitch, on the other – possibly left – hand, simply seem to be singing about the occult because it’s a good way of provoking certain images in their listeners’ heads, and hey, it’s fun to listen to.

In a similar way to how their lyrics may seem initially similar to Mercyful Fate, if perhaps devoid of some of the Dane’s more malefic touches, then Stormwitch’s music can too be said to have something of a Mercyful Fate Lite vibe about it. There’s a lot of pre-Don’t Break the Oath MF distilled into Stormwitch’s sound, and believe me it’s certainly welcome! But as I’ve said, it’s lighter in its overall mood, but that’s hardly of any real detriment. This brings me to another comparison: Helloween. As well as Andy Mück’s vocals having some Kai-alike intonations to them, the band’s overall sound is perhaps a little something like what Helloween would have sounded like if they’d followed some of their more sinewy mid-paced moments on Walls of Jericho (think ‘Phantoms of Death’ in particular) to a more melodic, refined conclusion rather than becoming something of a pop-metal band on Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part I. So yes, it’s not the most original and world-shaking thing I’ve heard, but Stormwitch are not artistes who redefine what is capable with heavy music with their music; they’re a highly enjoyable band who are happy to write well-constructed songs that may or may not rhyme “George Michael” with “Menstrual Cycle”.

Surely, you’ve got time for something like that, right? It’s something that German heavy metal bands seem to do very well post-NWOBHM. After all, Britain gave up producing traditional heavy metal in any great quantity by the mid-80s (for reasons I can’t really fathom), so surely someone had to carry on the torch, right? Although, the German thrash scene gets its deserved accolades, the influx of traditional metal bands coming out of Germany in the 80s is certainly not something to be sniffed at in both terms of quantity and quality. Helloween and Running Wild certainly have their fans, as do Grave Digger to a lesser extent, so why not Stormwitch as well? Certainly the material present on Stronger than Heaven puts it way ahead of, say, ‘Headbanging Man’ and its ilk. This band needs more credit, especially when people still deem Hammerfall to a be a worthwhile band!

Stronger than Heaven is certainly an album any trad metal connoisseur will enjoy from the first spin, and although I can’t really say there’s a moment I didn’t really enjoy there’s a few definitely standouts. Opener, ‘Rats in the Attic’ introduces us to the delightful, melodic riff-o-rama, which is given a well-pronounced place in the mix with that lovely mid-80s warm mush of a guitar sound. It’s certainly not the most serious or shadowy number on Stronger than Heaven but still at its most overtly ‘fun’ the album is nowhere near as “HAPPY HALLOWEEN!” as the cover art would suggest. This probably from where I’ve devised most of my Helloween comparisons – it’s certainly the closest they get to Kiske-era Helloween (and a year before the Keepers… began, too). ‘Eternia’ proves another wholly worthwhile number with its ‘Curse of the Pharaohs’ styled guitar work interspersed with misty little verses that move the song forward at a great pace. The title track itself shows the band at their most anthemic; it starts off with an ol’ witch gang-chant, which is fair enough as the witches on the cover have perms… eighties witches, really, their familiar was probably a curling iron. It’s quite an archetypal eighties-styled heavy metal number it wouldn’t really sound out of place on one of the good Dio albums, which is probably a good indication of this band’s melodic class.

But still, my favourite is the rousing, unsettling fast number ‘Slave to Moonlight’. It’s the typical horror tale of changing by moonlight into something far more hairy and waking up covered Pedigree Chum with no idea of what you’ve done the next morning, which is a truly frightening image. I like really like the interjection of cheesy eighties horror sound effects in the sound. Stormwitch really does sound like a great eighties horror movie with all the charm and schlock you could ever ask for – forget society’s ills and politics for a while and captivate yourself with the fears of demons, gypsy curses and that howling sound on the wind that you can’t quite put your finger on.