(Review borrowed from Metal Archives, Written by DeathRiderDoom)

Stormwind is another one of those pretty badass Teutonic traditional/speed metal bands of 1980’s. Not to be confused with the Swedish power metal band (formed in 1996 if my memory serves me), who seem to have usurped this much older (and therefore more deserved) band’s last.fm page, this band has a classic speed metallish sound akin to old Saxon or (sorry, I know this is typical, but Accept) Stormwitch. Other points of comparison might include Belgian act Crossfire, or the other Low Country Heroes Picture. Very rockin’ stuff, and there’s plenty of awesome riffs to be found – perhaps even more than average in this sort of material. Classic mid 80’s sound, strong recording quality and forceful and (I know, I know this is cliché but similar to Udo) well-done vocals. A little surprised didn’t get a bit more recognition, I mean – I know there were a million of these Germanic heavy/speed metal bands around at this time, but you had quite a few of about the same caliber managing to make a name for themselves: Krokus, Bullet, Faithful Breath, Bullet, and perhaps even Bad Lizard to name just a few. Oh well, that’s how it goes I guess. Anyway, did I mention riffs? Did I mention Saxon? Tracks like ‘Evil’s Child’ and the awesome opener ‘Hard Sins’ are riff monsters that sound very comparable to Saxon. Seriously – props to the band, and to Wolla and Niko especially for churning out some classic and classy 80’s metal riffs here. In the former, we get a strong Germnic tinge coming through in Klaus Klemm’s voice similar (groan) to Udo again. In both these tracks, and pretty much the rest of the album, riffs and drums are fast-pace, driving things along at a nice head-nodding speed metal pace. Really enjoyable, and in my opinion, at least a few notches above a lot of the stuff of heard from this scene. Guitar skill is evident not only in these two cuts, but in most of the songs; pretty inventive stuff that sorta jumps out at you a bit (perhaps dude to the pretty remarkable job on recording/mastering) that does give a nice clear, distinct sound to the album.

History: 

The band was founded in February 1980 by the schoolmates Niko Arvanitis and Rudy Kronenberger who had known each other since 1977. Soon another schoolmate, Olly Kliem, joined them. It took the band until 1983 to establish a stable line-up and a demo was recorded (containing the songs "Warbringer", "Fairy of Dreams" and "Iron Rock"). Rudy Kronenberger left the band soon afterwards along with their singer and bassist. In 1984 Wolla Böhm and Klaus Lemm joined the band with the latter one being introduced by Udo Dirkschneider. Rudy Kronenberger eventually came back (switching to bass guitar) and the band played its very first gig in August 1984. The band started to crumble when Niko Arvanitis was offered being part of Warlock in late 1985, the last concert was held in Düsseldorf, November 1985. A demo called "Flash" was supposedly recorded in 1986 with a now unknown line-up. In early 1988 the band was finally put to rest.