Screamer – Kingmaker
Release Date: 13th January 2023
Label: Steamhammer/SPV
Bandcamp
Genre: Power Metal, Heavy Metal.
FFO: Skull fist, Reckless Love.
Review By: Liam True
Part power metal epic and part heavy metal throwback, Kingmaker is a call back to the NWOBHM days, with their hulking riffs and piercing vocals cutting deep to reopen the old wounds you have to ensure that you bang your heads to the masterpiece they’ve crafted.
Opener and title track Kingmaker is an anthemic song as the chorus will be stuck in your head for days after, as the vocals of Andreas Wikstrom sound beautiful over the dual guitar assault of Jon Morheim & Dejan Rosic and the bass guitar of Fredrik Carlstrom has an almost 80s inspired guitar riff to it. A decade approach to a song isn’t left just on the title track as Rise Above has a 70s feel to it as it would be perfect along side bands such as Sweet, and then comes the thrash metal inspired track Hellfire.
As great of a start as it is, once you reach Chasing the Rainbow & Burn it Down it gets a bit dull and repetitive, and album closer Renegade picks the pace back up with a guitar heavy track that unfortunately drowns most of the band out. It’s a good album, but has its moments where it dips in production quality, and resonates highly in that regard. Good, but extremely hit-and-miss.
(2 / 5)
