STORMHOLD – Salvation

Stormhold’s second album Salvation continues the Swedish band’s explorations into classic New Wave of British Heavy Metal stylings, complete with medieval and martial themes, clean vocals with occasional harmony, dual guitars and a solid pounding rhythm section—all the time-honored elements are present in opener “Heart Of A Hero”. Their reverence for their thematic ancestors is perhaps most evident on the stirring instrumental “Exile”, where each musician takes a turn soloing.

A couple of the songs—“The Stranger” and “Path Of No Return” begin acoustically, with the former using the quiet intro as a launching pad for heaviness to follow, while the latter stays in acoustic mode, allowing vocalist Filip Peterson to sing in a lower register. He generally sounds more comfortable on “Path” than he does on some of the tunes where he stretches for high notes, but even when the strain is evident he projects with considerable power, such as on the hard-hitting next track “God’s Crusade”, a song which also features some excellent tandem guitar work from axmen Jonas Nilsson and Jakob Morhed.

“Edge Of The World” brings the “chorus of Vikings” harmony vocals supporting Filip on many of the tracks to the forefront in a song that travels through an acoustic break, several tempo changes, and some heavy duty soloing. “We March” bassist Jan Ekbergis’s chance to cut loose, the song opens with a swift tangle of bass notes and an air-raid wail from Filip (no strain evident on this one). Jan, assisted ably by rhythmic partner Robin Hermansson takes the march into full gallop. Closer “We’ll Never Fall” is a typical  call to arms anthem, a solid coda to an album certain to please classic Heavy Metal aficionados.

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