Customer Reviews

Walpurgis Night

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Hmm... no other reviews for this album. It's not too surprising considering how many people, even in the metalhead community, don't know about the fantastic German metal band that is Stormwitch.

Walpurgis Night, Stormwitch's first album from 1984. At this point, the band had not started adding atmospheric keyboards to their music yet (which would be fully integrated into their music by the time they released their fourth album, 1988's The Beauty and the Beast). It's just a lot of furious guitar riffs and shredding, slashing guitar solos. Singer Andy Muck also dishes out some serious vocals here. He has a clean voice, but it gets a unique raspy sound when he really wails, which he does a lot throughout this album. A great example is when he shouts "Are you readyyy?!!!" at the start of the first track, "Cave of Steenfoll." He also delivers especially well in "Warlord." I've honestly never heard singing with this kind of ferocity. It's really fantastic.

The music here is similar to Iron Maiden's early work, only it has even MORE energy and intensity. The themes of these songs are typical for Stormwitch: witchcraft, war, sorcery, swords, werewolves, and even piracy in "Skull and Crossbones." As with their later albums, Stormwitch proves here to have a masterful ability to convey the themes of their songs in the music itself.

The album culminates in "Thunderland," somewhat of a metal anthem. It surges and pounds the listener without mercy, just like the rest of the songs on this album. It's also got fantastic guitar soloing.

This just might be Stormwitch at their heaviest. Not to be missed.