Powermad

Stälker is a band that exploded onto the speed scene a few years back and surprisingly the trio hailed from the fabled shores of New Zealand, a land more known for its savage war metal acts than the pure speed Stälker is selling. From 2016 they have released a demo, single and a full album, all of which set the speed scene ablaze with its rapid riffs, blistering vocals and thundering drums. Now the mighty trio has returned once more with a single that contains a pair of songs that ascend their already impressive collection of releases.

Powermad opens with the blaring sound of an air raid siren, punctuated by a painful scream that precedes a howling howitzer of speed metal. "Powermad" sets a new standard for Stälker immediately. Faster, heavier and nastier; Stälker does what they do best here unleashing a punishing torrent of speed/thrash riffs, rabid barks, shrieking falsetto screams and powering drum patterns that leave no room for mercy. "Behold the Beast" in contrast to the blazing speed of the track before it, moves at a mid-paced rhythm, allowing the drums to let loose breakdown after breakdown that any crowd will mosh themselves dead too.

The band has pushed every aspect of their sound to the next level. The pace set by drummer Nick Oakes is wicked and his talent for creating intricate drum patterns, coupled with his love for not letting his cymbals ever stay silent is impressive and I never find his work boring in the slightest. Chris Calavrias' guitar work is equally stunning, squeezing as much crunchy palm-muted thrash riffs and tremolo speed guitar lines as he possibly could with the confines of typically three-minute songs. The vocals Daif King blares out are some of the best on the scene right now and his falsetto screams will strip the bones of any poser foolish enough to behold their might. His basslines are functional and fit the rest of the sound perfectly, despite the fact they never really leave the shadow of the guitar lines.

The production is wonderfully organic and fluid, not leaving a single instrument in the dust and even the bass is audible in the maelstrom of speed savagery, which is not always the case with modern speed/thrash acts. The cover is both well illustrated and amusing as if some metalhead got caught in an atomic blast on his way home from a late-night gig, bones and hair stripped away whilst the leather and steel somehow remain intact, even against the nuclear shockwaves.

In all, Stälker has pulled it off again and have solidified their status as one of the top acts pursuing this style of metal in the last few years or so. Bright, blistering and boisterous; the trio is at the forefront of speed and there should be little doubt that their grip of the genre will only tighten if they keep delivering this level of speed. The world is aflame, the posers are dead and the tyrants now rule; only Stälker remains true, mad with power one can only wonder when they will strike again.

Stälker play the kind of speed metal that kills you in the crosswalk. No warning, no signal, just screeching wheels of burnt rubber and the howling cackles of the powermad. These wild New Zealanders channel the spirit of the early 80's in a drunken, orgiastic reveling of a post-apocalyptic alternate-past wherein the bombs did fall and only the diesel swilling speed punks survived. Think Exciter circa 1983 but with stronger production values.

"Powermad" is the siren song (hell, it begins with an air raid siren) launching, as it does, with blazing leads and high falsetto shrieks that drag you kicking-and-screaming into a maelstrom of raging speed metal that is less interested in being tight and clinical and more invested in unleashing an ungodly amount of feral energy. Stälker's speed metal runs the keen edge, a switchblade dance of entangled energies straining for release. "Powermad" achieves that release with blistering hot tremelo riffings, buzz-toned bass lines, and a drummer who struggles to maintain accurate time-keeping cuz fuck it, the world's ending anyway.

"Behold The Beast" lulls you into a false belief that a mid-tempo chugger is coming. The opening riffs hearkens onto Tank (as covered by Sodom) but things rapidly spiral out-of-control as the double-time kicks in. "Behold The Beast" is closer to the refinements that mid-80's thrash brought to speed metal but Stälker keep it vintage with the falsetto shrieks and intentional sloppiness.

Neither of these tracks touch the overall quality of the songs on Stälker's previous full-length but they are still a fun, energetic neck workout and worth your six minutes of aural investigation, particularly if bands like Exciter, Razor, and Inepsy float your speed metal boat.