Chasing the Storm

Tröjan – Chasing the Storm

This is a release I’ve been meaning to review for some time, and finally decided to take the plunge, while avoiding doing any of my real responsibilities. I’m actually fairly surprised no one’s reviewed any of Tröjan’s stuff at the time of this writing. I’ve heard them mentioned around a bit, and this – their only studio album seems to be generally heralded as somewhat of classic in its own right – a landmark blending of speed metal and NWOBHM – much in the vain of Atomkraft and Avenger, perhaps even the well-known Raven. What we have here is strong, lightning speed rock n roll from start to finish. Starting at the album art – which is among the best covers from the year hands down, you know your not in for a middle of the road goofy hodge podeg of wannabe medievalisms and awkward sleaziness. What we have on this record is pedal to the floor, balls out speed metal, white knuckled intensity and genuine professionalism from the band.

Starting off with the furious opener ‘Chasing the Storm’ was an excellent decision by the band. If you were giving this the obligatory test-listen at the record store you’d be sold in all of 3 seconds. Fucking thrilling pace and aggression in this number! What’s cool about this speed metal attack is it retains a lot of that classic and hallmark British sear in the vocals – markedly different from the hardcore punk sounding US speed metal bands. This speed metal variety retains the focus on aggressive melody on the vocal side of things, complete with your thundering drums and axe attack. The vocals in ‘Chasing the Storm’s chorus, and the strong second cut ‘Tonight We’ve Got it Made’exemplify this approach well. The anthemism of these attacks is carried through many of the other tracks as well, though they don’t all have the rocketing pace of the first two.

Tracks like ‘Backstabber’ and ‘Hypnotised’ fabricate your obligatory mid-album slower section, but still consist of same shattering riffage and solos. The ‘Cat Scratch Fever’ ishness of riffage in ‘Backstabber’ is suddenly supplanted with an uproarious solo, and Avengeresque punchers on guitar. While Graeme Wyatt is a good vocalist – possessing great aggression (essential for speed metal) and that classic Biff Byfordish tone of voice – he isn’t the master of the high notes that oh, say Tony Moore is. And I know it’s unfair to judge every speed metal album on the standard set by Thundersteel, but during the oft attempted highs here by Wyatt, his voice shows signs of faltering – which is no surprise – my voice does that – and plenty of vocalists don’t have all the horsepower at this level of RPM’s, but it is pretty noticeable here. This is largely evident in the two mentioned tracks, and since this is largely an excellent speed metal? NWOBHM album – it must be mentioned that what keeps it from being a ‘Thundersteel’ are the vocals. Not bad – but could’ve benefitted from some better executed highs.

The remainder of the album consists of the emotive guitar lead laden (and Maidenesque) ‘Icehouse’ – a gallopy riff monster, the return to dirty 70’s Riot riffage in the top tier anthem ‘No Prisoners’, and a couple of decent closers. Apart from the first two – ‘No Prisoners’ a slightly slower number – is one I really get into. Besides your obvious aggression in the lyrics, this one has some heavy drumming – bringin to the table a sound comparable to early 80’s Riot – albeit with weaker production. The solo in this one is passable – but would’ve benefitted from more inventiveness, additional harmonies and better production. Things are at times a little blurry in this album, with the heavy drumming kindof drowned-out, limiting the impact. If you listen hard enough – the drums are there, but they don’t kick you up the arse like they would do with better recording. ‘Hot ‘N Ready’ and ‘Help Me’ are more traditional NWOBHM attacks – and don’t have quite the standout quality of the earlier tracks – while still being good. I like the fade out riff in the latter, positioned underneath the emotive chorus vocal.

Yeah, just get the album. Fans of NWOBHM and mid 80’s heavy metal definitely. Plenty of NWOBHM riff attacks, mixed with pacey attacks like the excellent closer ‘Aggressor’ – sounding very akin to the mid 80’s German sound. Thrilling speed metal with four top tier numbers mixed with a remainder of strong cuts good enough to one up many competitors. Totally headbangable metal here – about as far from AOR, Glam, or hard rock as you could get, and well-likely to become a top-shelf dweller in any switched-on metalheads collection. Check this one out now if you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard the buzz surrounding the band yet. You WILL NOT be disappointed – easily one of the most universally likeable albums I’ve reviewed so far (that’s a lot of albums), far from an ‘acquired taste’ (see: Satanic Rites, Touched, Clientelle, Y Diawled). Check it out and join the worship.

-DeathRiderDoom