After a barnstorming start of Brainstrorm’s first single „Escape The Silence“ (feat. Peavy Wagner, Rage) 6 weeks ago, the metal community is awaiting their fresh new single „Where Ravens Fly“. Finally we are able to listen to this extremely melodic and rousing track with such a powerful and catchy chorus that inevitably fascinates the listener. The next big step towards the power metal monument “Wall of Skulls”. It comes with a brand new lyric video that can be seen below.
Listening to the latest Brainstorm album ‘Wall Of Skulls’, you immediately realise how much the band surrounding vocalist Andy B. Franck has benefitted from the group’s impressive predecessor offering, ‘Midnight Ghost’ (2018). ‘Midnight Ghost’ was a musical turning point for the power metal act from southern Germany which saw the band members reach an even higher level of quality and broaden their artistic horizon even further. “When we released the recording, we immediately felt that we were holding probably the most important album in Brainstorm’s history in our hands,” explains Franck. “Sales figures as well as audience reactions during the subsequent tour confirmed that impression. Our fans celebrated the new material as enthusiastically as they did our classics.” And that’s precisely the point where ‘Wall Of Skulls’ picks up, taking Brainstorm’s musical concept even further. Franck talks of an “almost uncanny energy at the rehearsal room when we wrote the material. We’ve included more powerful and fast-paced numbers than ever before on this album. All that happened totally unintentionally and without a masterplan but in a completely natural way. We simply worked on the songs without compromises and never changed course once we’d embarked on a specific direction. So ‘Walls Of Skulls’ is definitely not ‘Midnight Ghost 2.0’, but another and very obvious step in the evolution of our music.”
A development, coincidentally, which has in a way even benefitted from the crisis for the cultural sector during 2020, which was marked by countless uncertainties and public lockdowns. “It may sound paradoxical, but the Covid-related tour cancellations and postponed tour dates gave me time during the production of ‘Wall Of Skulls’ to put things on hold that I wasn’t one hundred per cent happy with and start all over again. In May 2020 I started feeling like I was running in circles artistically, so I deleted lots of vocal cuts and started all over again six weeks later. As far as I was concerned it was important not to rush these songs but to get the optimum out of our creative power.”
And that’s exactly what these ten tracks (plus Intro) do. ‘Wall Of Skulls’ sees Brainstorm pull out all the stops, guitarists Torsten Ihlenfeld and Milan Loncaric stringing together one strong guitar riff after the other, giving the rhythm section consisting of bassist Antonio Ieva and drummer Dieter Bernert free rein and allowing them to lay down the red carpet for some awesome melodies and anthemnic chorus parts.
‘Wall Of Skulls’ is scheduled for release on 17 September 2021, with another cover courtesy of Hungarian artist Gyula Havancsak (Accept, Stratovarius) featuring an amazing design which is the perfect companion to one of the strongest Brainstorm albums to date. Andy B. Franck is happy to confirm this positive impression: “I’ve never felt more comfortable in my role with Brainstorm!”.
