Review HEAVY LOAD ‘Riders of the Ancient Storm’

Heavy Load are hailing from Stockholm, Sweden and unleash with ‘Riders of the Ancient Storm’ their fourth album. “Ancient” is in this case more than solely a word in the album title.

The Swedes started in 1976 and the first three longplayers have seen the light of day between 1978 and 1983. After a very long hiatus, the band returned in 2017 and it took the four-piece another six years to finish work on their next studio album. Now, the work is done and here comes ‘Riders of the Ancient Storm’.

The cliché- driven artwork of the album heralds what kind is music we can expect. Oldschool metal is what Heavy Load offer and it is ‘Ride the Night’ that kicks things off. It is a good start into the album, also considering the certainly not over-produced sound. The song follows the spirit of early 80s metal and increases the expectations when it comes to the rest of the material.

As a listener you will be knocked out of the skies with the following ‘We Rock the World’. There is not a lot of rock included when the band merges some Sabbathian riffs with a certain Led Zeppelin vibe. In case you think about the next song leading back to the road to metal Valhalla, the tune proves you wrong. ‘Walhalla Warrior’ comes with a strong title and one might have the sound of the metal Vikings of Amon Amarth in mind when reading the title. The reality is, that the track is a very average metal song that creates the temptation of pressing the ‘Skip’-button. It is also the oldest track of the album as it goes back to 1987 and there is little surprise that ‘Walhalla Warrior’ stayed in the box until now.

Also in the bottom half of the tracklist things don’t get much better. The upbeat ‘Raven is Calling’ shows some good basic pattens but not more while the epic ‘Sail Away’ can’t change the basic impression of the album either. Simple melodies, an anemic sound and artificial keyboards is what the song offers and unfortunately the energizing level is rather low.

Heavy Load’s return isn’t the glorious one metalheads might have expected. The band remains in a time long gone which is per se not a bad thing. Yet in combination with average songs and a vapid sound, the result is not what knocks your socks off. Or you are looking exactly for this time-travel experience which turns thing around.