Saturday 15 January 2011

#009 Stormrider - Lucifer Rising

Stormrider are a somewhat young and rather obscure Blackened-Death metal band from Sweden, Leaning on the Blackened side of the genre. The band have two studio albums. This fact alone means nothing, however, It seems worth mentioning that they are giving both of these albums away as a free download, which I found very generous, as I would be more than willing to pay for music of the quality Stormrider produce.






Lucifer Rising is a well rounded record, that much is obvious from the very beginning. With songs which are almost entirely black metal (and good black metal, at that) to songs which are far more on the Death-metal side of the coin, each song is excellent in it's own right.

The musicianship of the band is obvious as well, especially the drumming. As a drummer, I can tell you that what stormrider's drummer achieves is pretty darn good, and very tight and energetic at that. This drumming paves the way for intense, energising riffage, with excellent lead, solos, tremolo picking abound, and many of the other tried and tested hallmarks of Black metal, which combines rather well with the death metal elements which are particularly notable in the structure and pattern of the riffs.


All in all, I'm content to say that Stormrider have produced some extremely interesting stuff on this album, and it's definately worth the money... oh, wait, it's completely free! (link below) The fact that the band does this gives me the impression that they are committed to their music, and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes metal which is on the extreme side.

I can't really think of many criticisms of this band, they are one of the bands I feel will either do something for you, or won't. Simple as that.

That considered, This album is being given a solid 8/10.

Links:
Stormrider on Myspace - Look here for links to download both albums for free!

 


.