Review SORCERER ‘Reign of the Reaper’

Swedish metal warriors Sorcerer have an interesting story to tell, especially when it comes to the band itself. It happened in Stockholm, Sweden, that Johnny Hagel and Tommy Karlsson decided to start a band. The guys operated as Sorcerer and released two demos. However, with Hagel’s move to Tiamat, a process of decline began that ended with the band’s end.

In 2010, however, the tide turned. Sorcerer got back together, with the Hammer Of Doom festival being not entirely unaccountable for this. Since then, the band has been releasing albums on a regular base and has a next highlight up its sleeve with ‘Reign of the Reaper’.

So far the band has turned into an elemental force in metal and one can be curious if Sorcerer will be able to keep up the very high level of the predecessor ‘Lamenting of the Innocence’. Already with the first listen it is clear that this undertaking succeeds. ‘Reign of the Reaper’ is even a tad more powerful, with the band presenting themselves even more mature.

Sorcerer feel at home in traditional heavy metal and the five-piece has shown with the ‘Reverence’ songs where their musical roots can be found. Black Sabbath, Rainbow, Ozzy Osbourne and Saxon, these are bands that have influenced the sound of Sorcerer. If you listen to ‘Thy Kingdom Will Come’, for example, you can see a certain parallel to the legendary Rainbow. Yet the band works with a lot of originality which makes the song a real highlight.

With ‘Morning Star’ the album also has a pulsating opener. Starting with a marching rhythm, the song turns out to be an epic riff firework that couldn’t be better at the pole position of such an album. The title track is another anthem that moves somewhere between the earlier Rainbow and doom metal. With a slower tempo, the song relentlessly waltzes forward and captivates at the first listen. Wow.

Calmer and more epic comes ‘Eternal Sleep’. The track has so much depth that it immediately fascinates the listener. Even though calmer and louder moments shake hands, ‘Eternal Sleep’ stays in rather moderate realms and impresses with its built-in melancholy.

‘Curse of Medusa’ with its irresistable chorus is also immediately in the mind of the listener and it is ‘The Underworld’ which makes headbanging a must. Slower and in doomy fields wanders ‘Break of Dawn’. The song is the epic finale of a record with which Sorcerer succeeded in surpassing the already outstanding predecessor. In a brilliant fashion Sorcerer represent oldschool traditional metal that nevertheless fits into today’s time. ‘Reign of the Reaper’ – a top 10 year poll album.