Album Review: Stormdeath – Time to Destroy (Witches Brew)

Stormdeath, from Gothenburg came to life in 2008. Time to Destroy is their debut full length album & was released in November 2016. 

We Are The Devils stormy sounding opening builds into a curling riff before launching itself headfirst into a wall of fast-paced death metal. You’ll find it hard to not think of early Slayer initially but Stormdeath mark themselves out with some nice shifts in tone.

There is a real nasty pace to the entire album, filled to the brim with hard-hitting guitar riffs. Time to Delay is all about speed, hitting the boost button & not letting go until it’s over. It’s a great piece of music that has a rawness to it, something that always appeals to me.

Possibly the standout sound of the entire album though is the drumming. Played at a breakneck speed constantly it conjures up an image of an eight limbed drummer as it almost seems impossible for a human being to be playing with this much intensity.

What makes Time to Destroy so special though is how Stormdeath aren’t content to just rest on having a good Slayer-esque sound. There is plenty that separates the two & Built by Lies is a fantastic example of this. Aggressive & heavy but not just for the sake of it. It’s got fantastic structure that lifts the spirits by just having a catchy as fuck beat.

Pay the Price doesn’t quite hit the highs that came before unfortunately but that’s more because the bar has been set early on. Here the guitars take a backseat to louder, more in your face vocals. It’s just not as interesting as what came before.

At only 9 songs & 41 minutes long Time to Destroy doesn’t have time to mess around & it continues its face-melting assault with Accursed, Black Sorrow & Law of Death. A triple whammy of head-bangingly good guitar riffs, skull-echoing bass, intense drum beats & vocals that are less sung & more spat out.

Accursed in particular is one of the strongest songs on the album with a guitar solo that sounds like it’s being strangled…and it’s enjoying it.

This sonic-assault on the mind ends with 2 very different songs. Dreamwalker is over 6 minutes & begins with an unexpected melody before turning up the metal. The tone shifts around the midpoint to bring the melodic edge back but with some sharper edges. It’s a lovely shift & ensures the track feels fresh when it comes back in. It’s really quite something.

The latter of the two is a short (2 minutes) balls to the wall thrash metal track that opens with the sound of a Gatling Gun shooting. It’s short & sweet but it isn’t very satisfying as a finish, it feels a bit tacked on. A disappointing ending to an other wise fantastic album.

Full Track Listing:

1. We Are the Devils
2. Time to Delay
3. Built by Lies
4. Pay the Price
5. Accursed
6. Black Sorrow
7. Law of Death
8. Dreamwalker
9. Gatlingun

Time to Destroy is available on most streaming services now but you can also pick it up here. You can also pick up some of their merch over on their Bandcamp page here & find out more about them over on Facebook. You can also check out some of their music on YouTube.