I discovered Stormblade in 1997 at my friend Ram Singh’s place, and the album came with one of those wonderfully ridiculous 1990s CD experiences that you just don’t get anymore. Back then, you could buy an Extreme Metal album and suddenly discover that the CD tray contained some outrageous artwork and provocative pictures that had absolutely nothing to do with the music. As young metalheads, of course, we noticed these things immediately. It was part of the entertainment before the CD even started playing, and Stormblade certainly understood the assignment. It reminded me of the same sort of provocative artwork and inlay photos you would find with some of the Cradle of Filth releases from that era. Ram’s collection was also where I discovered Goddess of Desire, so there was plenty for a young metalhead to investigate that afternoon.
There was another connection here that goes further back for me. Ram Singh worked at Tower Records, and in 1993 he was the guy who handed me Sepultura’s ‘Bestial Devastation / Morbid Visions’. At the time I was still listening to King Diamond, Metallica and Danzig and genuinely thought I was already dealing with the heaviest and craziest music imaginable. Then Ram puts Sepultura in my hands and suddenly my definition of Extreme Metal gets thrown straight out the window. That Sepultura story is definitely one for another day, but Ram played a pretty important part in opening that door for me. By the time I was sitting at Ram’s place with his brother Rattan in 1997 listening to Stormblade, I was already well into the underground and much more prepared for whatever strange record came next.
Demoniac came out of Wellington, New Zealand, in 1993, formed by Lindsay Dawson, known as Behemoth, and Sam Totman, known as Heimdall. They began with a rawer Black Metal approach, which can be heard on their 1994 debut ‘Prepare for War’, but ‘Stormblade’ showed that they were already becoming much more interested in melody, traditional Heavy Metal and more developed songwriting.
The ‘Stormblade’ lineup featured Behemoth on vocals and bass, Heimdall on guitars and vocals, Adramolech on drums and vocals, with Mc Magnus handling keyboards. The album was recorded at Marmalade Studio in New Zealand in September 1996, with Andre Downes responsible for the engineering, mixing and mastering. Released through Evil Omen Records, ‘Stormblade’ catches Demoniac at an interesting point where their original Black Metal identity was beginning to change.
‘Burn the Witch’, ‘Domination’, ‘Into the Cavern Light’ and ‘Fight the War’. Demoniac were clearly experimenting with more traditional Metal ideas while keeping their darker foundation intact. The keyboards add another dimension to the arrangements, while the guitars increasingly carry the songs with proper riffs and melodic passages rather than simply providing a wall of distortion.
What makes ‘Stormblade’ particularly interesting now is knowing what these musicians eventually became. Demoniac would relocate to England, change direction considerably and move further towards Power Metal. Sam Totman eventually became one of the founding members of DragonForce alongside Herman Li, which makes looking back at ‘Stormblade’ rather amusing. Somewhere between this rough New Zealand Black Metal record and DragonForce’s later universe of impossibly fast solos, fantasy artwork and guitars that sound like they are permanently being chased by something, there is one hell of a musical journey.
I still find that transition fascinating because ‘Stormblade’ sits right in the middle of it. You can hear the Black Metal roots, but you can also hear the fascination with melody and Heavy Metal that would eventually take these musicians somewhere completely different. Whatever you think of DragonForce, you cannot deny that the distance between Demoniac and what came later is enormous.
For me, ‘Stormblade’ remains tied to that afternoon at Ram’s place in 1997, discovering another strange record and another band that I had no idea would eventually have such a different future. The album, the artwork, the whole package and especially ‘Fight the War’ all belong to that particular period when discovering an Extreme Metal CD could lead you somewhere completely unexpected. And sometimes, before you even pressed play, the artwork had already given you something to stare about for a long time.
