Stormchild - extremely rare 80's metal from Finland

This band was formed in 1988 and disbanded in 1990. Shortly came back in 1994, but the singer sadly died very young.

They only had around 20 gigs and they made a few demo recordings.

This video has a collection of six demo songs. Soundwise it seems these songs come from two different recording sessions. If I remember correctly and the rumor I heard back in the day was true, the singer took vocal lessons at some point, which explains the change in vocals from the third song onwards, and again from the fifth song onwards. I guess it's also possible that the first two songs have the band's first singer on vocals, but to my knowledge all of these songs were recorded by the lineup that had Michael Rantanen on vocals.



The band sounds really tight and the songs are so good that it's sad this band never got any real recognition beyond small underground following from local fans.

This video features a recording from a tape I've had since 1996 or so. There are some issues with sound at times and especially the right channel needed a ton of fixing, but it sounds surprisingly good for a decades old demo recording.

It's heavy/speed metal that reminds me a bit of the Walls of Jericho era Helloween, especially from the 3rd song onwards. The opening of the first song is an intentional rip-off/homage of an Alice Cooper song.

My favorites are the double bass heavy fast and furious 4th track and the 5th track that's a catchy haunting ballad.

Here's hoping Stormchild gets to be heard by a few more people after all this time.