Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Striker
Label: SAOL
Release: year_month
Length: 38:50
Rating: 3.5/5
Just under two years ago, the young heavy metallers from Edmonton, Striker, were practically total unknowns in these parts. Then they got a last-minute chance to step in and play Metaldays 2015, and with an energetic, hard-hitting show and a devilishly infectious brand of heavy/power metal, they massively, massively expanded their fan base, not just here, but very likely among plenty of international festival-goers too. Soon after Metaldays, the Canadians put out the hugely successful Stand In the Fire, and just a year later its follow-up is already here, simply titled Striker.
Compared to its predecessor, it’s a lot more stripped-down, with even bigger choruses and shorter songs averaging just under four minutes, but the mix of heavy metal, hard rock, glam and even a bit of thrash here and there, in the style of Set the World on Fire by Striker’s fellow Canadians Annihilator, still hits hard and convinces. Striker is an album stripped of any complication, since every song follows the verse-chorus-verse formula, which makes it a thoroughly classic heavy metal record. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because Striker have a youthful elan that seeps out of every verse and every riff on the album.
It’s precisely in these two basic building blocks of classic heavy metal that Striker shine, mostly thanks to the outstanding duo of Dan Cleary and Tim Brown. The former has one of the most polished voices in the genre right now, with an incredibly infectious sense of melody and a knack for superb harmonies that come through most clearly in the anthemic choruses, while the latter delivers explosive guitar wizardry that flies at you from every direction like the pyrotechnics in a Dolph Lundgren action flick. In the faster, thrashier parts Cleary recalls Joey Belladonna or Aaron Randall, while in the cleaner heavy/power moments he brings to mind great vocal names like Carl Albert. Just as Cleary is vocally versatile, the album is a genre mash-up. If songs like Former Glory and Born to Lose sound like Judas Priest on steroids, Shadows in the Light and Rock the Night will even bring Skid Row and Whitesnake to your eardrums.
Anyone who expected Striker to record Stand in the Fire 2 or City of Gold 2 will be disappointed, and in places I’m joining that disappointment myself. With the simplification, Striker have lost some of the charm and rawness of their past, because the new album sounds a little too polished and radio-friendly all around, and the closing cover of Desire, originally written by Ozzy Osbourne, Zakk Wylde, Lemmy Kilmister and Randy Castillo, is totally unnecessary. Still, the shortest Striker album to date does offer a few nice surprises, like the closing banger Curse the Dead, which with its speed and gang vocals comes closest to recalling Stand in the Fire. Striker are clearly, though without overdoing the copying, building on the foundations laid by Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Ozzy Osbourne, and they sound fresh while doing it, and despite a few flaws on the new record they remain one of the hottest bands in the new wave of heavy metal.
Line-up
Dan Cleary – vocals
Tim Brown – guitar
William Wallace – bass
Adam Brown – drums
Production
Dan Cleary and Fredrik Nordstrom
Track list
1. Former Glory
2. Pass Me By
3. Born to Lose
4. Cheating Death
5. Shadows in the Light
6. Rock the Night
7. Over the Top
8. Freedom’s Call
9. Curse of the Dead
10. Desire
