Get your battle jackets and spandex ready, it’s time for some old school heavy metal! Hailing from New Zealand, Stalker are a relatively new band with a couple of releases under their belt with the aim of bringing back the vintage metal of the 80’s that started it all. Their second album “Black Majik Terror” drops next month but we had an early look at the new album to see why things have been buzzing around this band.
Immediately upon hearing the opening squeals and guitars in first track “Of Steel And Fire“, you get a pretty quick sense of what this band is about. Bullet belts, leather-clad outfits, battle jackets, even the artwork has the old school metal vibe, this band oozes heavy metal vintage style.
The title track follows and it’s unrelentless stuff, the tempo keeping it at a cooked speed all the way through. “Sentenced To Death” and “Stalker” and more on the same lines, that speed metal meeting a bit of anarchist punk somewhere along the way before “Holocene’s End” takes things a step back with a slower pace and a catchy melody that drives the song into a NWOBHM inspired section.
“Demolition” picks up the pace again but throws in a chugging breakdown halfway to mix it up a bit while “The Cross” deceivingly starts out slow before switching back into high gears and ending in what is one of the more fun closing passages on the album.
Rounding out the album, “Iron Genocide” stays in the fast lane and “Intruder” adds a bit of horror element for a bit of excitement to close things out. It’s all fun and games here and the band probably don’t take themselves too seriously but if you love that vintage 80’s heavy metal with a bit of thrash, power and NWOBHM in the vein of Manowar meets Venom then this might be worth checking out.
7/10
TRACKLIST
Of Steel And Fire
Black Majik Terror
Sentenced To Death
Stalker
Holocene’s End
Demolition
The Cross
Iron Genocide
Intruder
