Elvenstorm (France): Blood Leads to Glory (Inferno Records)

Elvenstorm (France): Blood Leads to Glory (Inferno Records)

The story goes that in his fundamental principle about metal music, Neal Kay—who in the late 1970s during the emergence of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal was important due to his work with the venue known as The Bandwagon in the U.K.—believed that only bands will talent should be permitted to perform on a stage. At the time, punk was fashionable and profitable, yet punk bands generally did not even know to how to play their instruments in an elementary way and their so-called singers had no ability to carry a single note; but the marketing machine did not care, given that the objective was making money, and the punks were happy to get their five seconds of fame and hype, feeling no sense of shame and sham for being so utterly worthless and inferior in skill.

This matter of talent, of course, is sometimes subjective. No one who is sane can build a rational argument that Ian Gillan did not have the talent to sing after one hears Deep Purple’s “Highway Star,” but not everyone might agree that the mythical and legendary Udo Dirkschneider is a good singer in the sense of a clear and high voice. The problem with traditional heavy metal, as many people have observed, is the difficulty in finding a great singer. Just about anyone can scream, shout, howl and growl, but certainly not everyone is able to sing. Be that as it may, but today the traditional heavy metal in the proper sense finds new bands with talent, younger generations who have decided that having quality riffs, solos, singing and songs is a necessity for their musical goals to come true.

That is why it is wonderful to find Elvenstorm and the realm of the air raid siren and of the aerodynamic guitar. Elvenstorm seeks to conquer the world and steal the hearts of the true-as-steel traditionalists stubbornly insisting and unapologetically demanding talent from metal music. Do you live for the rush of heavy metal thunder, and to bang your head when you hear a band working hard to connect with you through fast and memorable songs? This is only the band’s second album, but the effort shown is highly commendable. You can tell that Elvenstorm lives and dies for Helloween’s “Walls of Jericho” and “Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part I” in terms of that heavy metal played at a near-thrash and speed metal tempo, with a great chorus, big riffs, shredding and high vocals. Laura Ferreux sings with energy, and is hell bent on making you sing along. The shredder Michael Hellström loves two inspirations in particular, Kai Hansen, of course, but also Michael positively worships at the altar of classic Running Wild, such as the guitar sound/riffing on the classic album “Pile of Skulls.” It’s a very particular guitar style and Elvenstorm is giving it new life.

As an album, “Blood Leads to Glory” is almost perfect in execution. The band sounds young, which is awesome to think about, because the band has not made its masterpiece yet. Elvenstorm sounds like a band that has learned a lot from the legends of heavy metal: the sound, the style, the songs, the skills, the tempo, the solos, the speed in drumming, the singing, the riffs and all the rest of the elements are utilized very well. You would think that Kai Hansen is going to be very, very angry when hears Elvenstorm because he’s going to wish that he had written these songs! Come to think of it, given that Iron Savior’s Piet Sielck—a man that is Kai Hansen’s life-long friend, from way back in the 1970s in the pre-Helloween band Gentry--mastered this album, it is certain that Kai already knows about Elvenstorm. Kai must be so proud that his musical children have turned out to be such high-standard bands.

On YouTube there are live videos of Elvenstorm and the band has a good energy in concert, but with more experience they will be a tighter playing machine. Also, Elvenstorm will need to find a second guitar player, even as a session player, because it is impossible to bring these songs to life in full effect with one guitar only. No worries, in time all these issues will get solved by this impressive and very promising band. Contact Infernö Records and Elvenstorm now and get the metal going.

Email: elvenstorm-metal@hotmail.fr

www.elvenstorm.com

www.facebook.com/Elvenstorm

www.facebook.com/pages/INFERNÖ-Records/104374422992796

www.inferno-records.net

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