Despite the fact that these German metal stalwarts have churned out 8 studio albums and have a career that spans 20 years, somehow they seem to have passed me by. I have no idea how I got to the ripe old age of 30-something without ever hearing anything from these prolific headbangers - time to redress the balance!
So, it is without any preconceptions or prejudices I dug into Brainstorm’s `Memorial Roots’. After the mist had cleared from the atmospheric and dramatic intro, the first thing that hit me was a mighty Metal riff (with a capital M) – as with many other German bands, Brainstorm take their cue from traditional metal and never deviate from the path (as far as I know anyway!). All the ingredients seem to be here for a classic metal release – belting vocals, sharp, crunching riffs, sweeping guitar solos and pounding drums.
Vocalist Andy Franck’s soaring voice avoids a lot of the pitfalls of power metal, by being neither too embarrassingly screechy, nor too gravelly and tuneless. Instead it falls into a ballsy middle ground, augmented by good use of harmony – and reminds me a little of a more restrained Rob Halford (when he’s not screaming for vengeance). Brainstorm often remind me of all things Priest-related, the slick, heavy production, the mid-paced crunching riffs and the gigantic choruses, not to mention the odd poignant, acoustic moment, and the subtle use of keyboards to add extra slickness.
In some ways, this album is as traditional as it is possible to get – these kinds of bands live in their own metal universe, where trends such as emo and grunge never happened, and it is heart-warming to see such devotion to the metal faith. I have a feeling these guys probably go down a storm (no pun intended) at every German metal festival every year without fail.
However, despite the sheer metal-ness of this album, it’s not always as entertaining as it sounds. After being locked firmly into the groove of opener `Forsake What I Believe’ for several minutes, the magic wears off slightly – the song gradually becomes rather repetitive and at 6 minutes plus, seems overly long. Unfortunately, the next few songs fall into the same trap, and all the catchy choruses and meaty riffs in the world can’t save them from being rather uninteresting. The band have fallen into the habit of writing some songs with very few dynamics, and as they pound out several mid-paced songs with very similar tempos, I find my attention wandering.
Suddenly `Memorial Roots’ takes a very welcome change of direction - the second half of the album has a lot more energy and dynamism than the plodding first half. The blistering `Ahimsa’ is a welcome change of pace, with some great Iron Maiden-style guitar harmonies, thunderous riffing and a catchy chorus. From this point on the band do not disappoint, and each track is a veritable powerhouse – epic `The Final Stages Of Decay’ is sometimes reminiscent of Nevermore at their best, and there are plenty of air-punching, headbanging moments to follow right up to the end of the album.
It seems odd to me that `Memorial Roots’ has such a split personality – I can’t help wondering if Brainstorm wrote the two halves of the album at different times. All in all – a rather unbalanced album, but the latter songs more than make up for the slow first half. Brainstorm are clearly an accomplished bunch, and when they put their minds to it, can write some seriously pounding metal anthems.
http://www.truemetal.org/brainstorm
http://www.myspace.com/officialbrainstorm
