Stormwitch - Walpurgis Night (1984)^{Release ID: 8014}

Stormwitch were a five-piece German heavy metal outfit formed in Heidenheim in 1981 with their debut studio album “Walpurgis Night” being released two years later in 1983. The title seems to have been derived from the eve of the Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga which might seem to be an unusual title for a metal record until you read the lyrics to the title track which tells the story of an orchestrated witch attack on the night in question. And this is not an uncommon sort of theme for Stormwitch as they’re known for directing their lyrical content towards the darker themes of fantasy & the occult. When you add that to a horrifying album cover featuring a photograph of what appears to be an undead warrior growling at you from behind an open fire, it’s only logical that a lot of listeners might be expecting a pretty evil sounding musical experience. The warrior is dressed in leather & spikes & carrying a double-balled mace & it’s hard to differentiate this image from the hundreds of similar album covers released by Scandinavian black metal bands over the years although this one has a lot more colour with the flames used to highlights the band’s logo. It’s genuinely scary but once you switch on the album you quickly realise that you had little to worry about because the music on “Walpurgis Night” is about as intimidating as a kiss goodnight from mum.

This is your standard meat & potatoes version of heavy metal with very little in the way of tension or genuine aggression. The production is a real problem here as it’s a very noisy sounding record. Stormwitch have apparently elected not to go for any multitracking & played these songs live in the studio in order to try to replicate the raw energy of their live performances but it hasn’t paid off for them here. There’s a thick layer of distortion hanging over these songs that can be a quite a turn off. Particularly when it’s attributed to the vocals.

The musicianship isn’t amazing in the first place & the guitar solos in particular seem to be pretty pointless as there’s very little in the way of technique or melody about them. The NWOBHM was clearly a big influence on Stormwitch & if you didn’t know where this record came from in advance you’d swear it was from the New Wave. In fact, Stormwitch wear there influences on their sleeves a bit too much in my opinion. Particularly the Iron Maiden one which seems to dominate this album so much that it comfortably crosses the line into plagiarism territory for the most part. Judas Priest & Saxon also get an airing but at no stage does Stormwitch manage to match their idols in the song-writing or execution departments. I do like the occasional progressive flourishes but even then they’re done in a very similar way to the one that Maiden employ. The guitar harmonies suffer from a similar affliction too. Vocalist Andy Muck has a decent enough voice for classic metal but he’s never going to be a super star & I think he’d need to be if Stormwitch were ever going to have a chance of succeeding with this sort of record.

Overall, I find "Walpurgis Night" to be a reasonably decent if largely overrated release that serves no real purpose from an artistic point of view. It’s worth noting that it’s a better record than Accept’s debut though I guess.