Stormwitch

Do you like Iron Maiden? Do you like Helloween? Of course you do. So let's kindly file a restraining order against your money and thus increase your collection.

Now..as is the case with many German bands (Dark at Dawn, Rage, Running Wild, Grave Digger, and so forth), you have something very amiss if you own no STORMWITCH.

I've only heard one of their albums (I forget which one at the moment), but I remember enjoying it at the time. Just never went back to it.

My favorite band in the early 80s before King Diamond took that place in 1987.

I wanted so badly to re-release the classic albums, but Andi (Battle Cry) beat me up to it. Oh well... I was such a fan-boy, the first web domain I ever bought was stormwitch.com way before the band reformed, or rather the sorry reincarnation which passes for Stormwitch these days, haha.

Still, first 4 albums are essential for every self-respecting 80s metal fan. Dark romantic metal at its finest (make those first 3 if you hate keyboard/synth sound).

YOU UNDERSTAND


what is your take on the Tarot's Myst album that Harald Spangler put out? It's a little butt-rock in places like something from 'Eye of the Storm' but then some other songs are so good..The guitar tone is also 100% Stormwitch which is strange since he didn't even play on his own record.

I got into Stormwitch after hearing Hammerfall's cover of "Ravenlord" (what an awesome song!).  I liked Stronger Than Heaven, but not as much as I'd hoped.  "Eternia" is another awesome track.  Those are the only songs from that album I ended up buying on Amazon.

The other albums didn't grab my attention until I gave Walpurgis Night a few more listens.  At first, I thought I only really liked "Cave Of Steenfoll," but then started digging other tracks and finally downloaded the entire album.

I had all their albums at one point but I ended up not liking them as much as I had hoped so I got rid of all of them. They had a few good songs on each album but not enough to keep my interests.

Sounds cool.

I really like the first 3. Great stuff and I am glad they were reissued.

Right now I'm giving Tales of Terror a listen. As I remembered, it's pretty damn good stuff. I'm wondering why I didn't revisit it a lot sooner.

Orion Crystal Ice wrote:

what is your take on the Tarot's Myst album that Harald Spangler put out? It's a little butt-rock in places like something from 'Eye of the Storm' but then some other songs are so good..The guitar tone is also 100% Stormwitch which is strange since he didn't even play on his own record.

I dig it, but I'm biased of course. The guitar tone is there because Harald, although not playing on it, was the producer of the album and must have set the tone himself.

I have 3 of their albums:

Walpurgis Night
The Beauty and the Beast
and
Stronger Than Heaven

I like each equally. Beauty and the Beast is a bit more commercial sounding though still good.

Wow !, they sound like Boston or maybe those heavier Styx tunes that 8 year old cape wearing boys gravitate towards.

Sorry, can't help myself sometimes of course

Ahhh, but that's where you're wrong. I wore a HOCKEY MASK when I was 8 and terrorized my apartments wandering around in it playing Priest and Def Leppard from my Fisher-Price cassette player.



I never claimed to turn out right.

Orion Crystal Ice wrote:

Ahhh, but that's where you're wrong. I wore a HOCKEY MASK when I was 8 and terrorized my apartments wandering around in it playing Priest and Def Leppard from my Fisher-Price cassette player.



I never claimed to turn out right.

Did you have the F-P player with the toy micrpohone hanging from a string ?

No, it was this thing that was just a red, thin rectangle which had a handle, cassette area, and a speaker, which I utilized greatly to the disdain of the neighbors - and who was going to know who I was?.. you would never know, you would never suspect that it was a miniature OCI who was providing all the rocking.. it could be a small and schizophrenic elderly lady, it may be one of them there monster soft-shell turtles we used to catch down in the creek.....

Orion Crystal Ice wrote:

it may be one of them there monster soft-shell turtles we used to catch down in the creek.....

They wore capes too didn't they ? At least the ones in the cartoons on TV did

Growing up with Mario and TMNT, I know that there's really all manner of unnatural things that turtles engage in.

stormspell wrote:

Orion Crystal Ice wrote:

what is your take on the Tarot's Myst album that Harald Spangler put out? It's a little butt-rock in places like something from 'Eye of the Storm' but then some other songs are so good..The guitar tone is also 100% Stormwitch which is strange since he didn't even play on his own record.

I dig it, but I'm biased of course. The guitar tone is there because Harald, although not playing on it, was the producer of the album and must have set the tone himself.

I like when traditional metal dudes/bands go the "butt rock" route. Saxon, Tokyo Blade, Loudness, etc. Basically, whenever someone says something like "such and such band was good until such and such record", well, I usually like that record too. Ha.

So if this has a "butt rock" sound to it, I will check it out. Maybe it's on Spotify.

It will be your new favorite record. Maybe. It's like "epic metal" (the record is about..duh, the Odyssey) mixed with Stormwitch and a little of that softer stuff here and there. Odd to explain. I know that it's completely unappreciated however.








these are two of my favorites, and aren't really poofy at all..the most poofy song is probably 'Lord of the Winds', which I can't even get through. The title track is a little airy but still killer:




But again, there is such good stuff on this record and people jump over things which aren't nearly at this level every day, so there you go.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

stormspell wrote:

Orion Crystal Ice wrote:

what is your take on the Tarot's Myst album that Harald Spangler put out? It's a little butt-rock in places like something from 'Eye of the Storm' but then some other songs are so good..The guitar tone is also 100% Stormwitch which is strange since he didn't even play on his own record.

I dig it, but I'm biased of course. The guitar tone is there because Harald, although not playing on it, was the producer of the album and must have set the tone himself.

So if this has a "butt rock" sound to it, I will check it out. Maybe it's on Spotify.

It is. It's listed under Stormwitch, though, not Tarot's Myst.

Taken from Stormwitch's FB page:

"With great dismay and deep sadness we have to announce today that Harald Spengler / Lee Tarot has died in the night of 11.04.2013. We are deeply shocked by this news. Our thoughts are with his family, relatives and friends. As founding member and songwriter of STORMWITCH he will be in our hearts forever."

R.I.P. dude, you shall be remembered!

Harald (Lee Tarot) Spengler 1963 - 2013 RIP

That sucks hairy ballsacks. RIP.

I have no idea why this band completely passed me by. I spent most of my teens listening to German metal. Scorpions, Accept, Helloween, Kreator, Destruction, Sodom, Deathrow, Iron Angel, Angel Dust, Holy Moses, Tankard, Grave Digger, Assorted Heap, Rage, the list goes on but I think that this is the first time that I've actually heard these guys.

Good stuff R.I.P Harald

ANOTHER one?????

This is out of nowhere. Awful. Says it was a stroke...... Damn............................

R.I.P., the songs and playing can never be allowed to become forgotten.

Just a bump, feeling the loss over here. Every fan of classic metal in the 80's owes it to themselves to check out some classic Stormwitch records for sure. Even 'Beauty and the Beast', one of their more 'commercial' ones, is just killer and full of that "IT".