Where My Spirit Forever Shall Be

Yes, yes, after the hype about Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth started, nearly every group that proved they could hold their guitars and paint their faces, was signed by so-called scene-labels, so that they would make sure to get their share of the big cake that was now made available to them. Stormlord is one of those bands signed by the famous Last Episode from Germany and claims to play epical Black Metal.

Their music offers those high screams especially Dani of Cradle of Filth is famous for, yet the Italian vocalist not only fails to reach the quality of the British archetype, but offers such an uninspired performance that indeed the seriousness of this band and releases can to some extend be doubted. As expected the female vocal parts, the male grunts and the (important) choir parts are also not missing, hence the overall attempt becomes very clear: to apply to every existing cliché possible. All this was condensed into those small three tracks with the ever pain-inflicting na, nana, na, na screams (track 1&3), but perhaps this was due to a band internal misunderstanding and the real intention was to say no, nono, no, no, because the song writing is so predictable and the sound so horrible loaded with keyboards that is a real pain to listen to the album over and over again. Yet they interpreted those vocals lines differently and that might be the reason they found their way unto the record. Together with the ever-dominant keyboard as second dominant part on the album, the direction of the whole attempt is clear: the easiest possible way to grab attention of the new Black Metal kiddies and thus to make money. Especially the choir parts on track three wake memories on Santa Claus with the typical ho, ho, ho motive. That is what the metal scene has waited for.

The guitars and drums are not worth to be mentioned as they are limited to a fast play and seldom offering anything new and fresh in particular. The cheesy instrumental, it should be impossible to explain why the hell this track has been put as a second one on a three (!) track record, should be skipped as it only offers a poor written Black Folk Metal, starting really fast, but only to switch to ultra slow after a minute or so. The third track is mainly the same one as the opening track of the album; accept that the keyboard is different and way more dominant. A good way to cover up lacks in song writing.

As this release is available from their homepage it is easy for each one to guess whether to spend their money on this release, for whatever reason this might happen, or just to put the tracks into the trash bin. For me, who own this release and looking back was this release just a waste of money, this comes a little bit late as the money is already gone and thrown into the gullet of those money-grabbing labels. The music is that sort of commercial Black Metal that found its way into the scene after it became popular at the end of the nineties and that was copied by an uncountable number of bands. This release offered nothing new in particular, except the Santa Claus performance and for that I give 10 points.

I think this is where Stormlord really starts to take shape. This EP has alot better production than Under the Sign of the Sword, and all the instruments just blend together so much better.

The title track "Where My Spirit Forever Shall Be" is great with Cristiano's epic war screams along with soft female vocals, In my opinion this song shows just how epic Stormlord will soon become. "Sir Lorial" is the next song, a nice little instrumental with fast guitar and keyboards (the Supreme art of war version will be alot better). And last "War (the supreme art)" Another song with awesome keyboard composition and good guitar riffs to go with them.

This EP deserves attention mostly because it is when Stormlord really became the awesome band that they are, all of this songs were re-recorded on Supreme Art of War with better production and some small changes. That doesnt take anything away from this EP. Im not sure how many copies of this are floating around right now, I was lucky to get mine. I think they may be availible through the band.