Metalstorm - Enter The Eye Of The Storm - review
Metalstorm - Enter The Eye Of The Storm - review
Tracklist
01. Primed Existence02. The Junkies Descent
03. Semtex
04. Informer
05. For What It Is Worth
06. Dive Into Abyss
A review by
ScreamingSteelUS April 28, 2026
The band before us, however, has a little more to its name – that is, our name – for, in addition to holding the auspicious honor of being the 20,000th band added to our database, it is returning from a spell in the grave long enough to earn it a space on Ch'ti's list of age-gap wonders. How long that spell was, I’m not sure, for detailed information on the band’s history is scarce, and I have found the release date for their debut and hitherto sole album, Outbreak Of Evil, given as 1986, 1987, and 1988. What we can comfortably determine is that the outbreak was ultimately contained before spreading too far, several other recordings from around that time period went unreleased until the 2019 Legacy compilation, and Enter The Eye Of The Storm marks the band’s first significant studio activity since before the creation of this website, the other band, the air combat video game, and the Australian weapons research company all bearing these ten letters. Metalstorm don’t seem fazed by the long lunch break, though: Enter The Eye Of The Storm finds the band little aged and even makes some slight improvements over Outbreak Of Evil.
The cover theme, basic style, and lineup (a bunch of old thrash guys) bring to mind 2024’s Category 7, which some of you may half-remember as a very okay heavy-thrash album most noteworthy for the very fact of its arrival. Despite pulling together some much better-established talent, Category 7 arguably loses out to Metalstorm in terms of fun and memorability, but it serves as a fine comparison in terms of what to expect from this album, that being an unadventurous take on thrash that one could describe either as respectful and familiar or as simplistic and ossified, depending on the charitable nature of one’s ears. Metalstorm claim to take inspiration from the Bay Area scene, which I would say is especially borne out by certain resemblances to early Metallica and especially Kill 'Em All. Vocalist Makki makes some allusions to James Hetfield’s youthful snarls, with occasional gruffer, meatier vocals (as on “Semtex”) pushing the band more towards Testament. The riffing style and rhythms have that same straightforward attitude of sped-up NWOBHM or armor-plated punk; nobody’s reinventing the Voivod here, just picking out a couple of good chords, buzzing away at them until it’s time for the solos to screech, and keeping consistent head-banging tempos through much of the album.
Exodus or Annihilator at their least technical and most shovel-headed could be other points of reference, but perhaps the best comparison for me is Sacred Reich, a band I’ve never regarded as having very much range or depth but nonetheless works up some good grooves. Barked vocals and simple, chunky riffs at a moderately fast pace make me think The American Way, and while that can amount to little more than the pleasant side of banal, there are worse ways to thrash.
Metalstorm do have more than the one mode, too: slower, quieter breaks appear on a few tracks, with perhaps the best of these coming in “The Junkies Descent”, where the half-tempo balladic portion allows the lead guitar work to shine and the more melodic writing develops some deeper personality. That song also opens with a very sudden swell of synthesizers and brass, which I’m sad to say do not continue in any substantial arrangement after the first minute; they add a welcome novel texture and an uncommon mood before the song kicks up the tempo again and casts aside its frills. “For What It Is Worth” takes its time, opening with a similar setting and largely holding back from thrash – its dark chord progressions and harsher backing vocals give it a slight black metal feeling that again catch my notice for brief stretches, though mostly it falls into the “mid-tempo Metallica” bucket. My favorite song is probably “Informer”, which doesn’t deviate from the formula as much as other tracks but comes with the catchiest chorus; it’s the kind of fun singalong that makes me more forgiving of such conventional writing schemes.
While its brief stylistic tangents likely won’t sway anyone who is turned away from the dominant elements of simple thrash, Enter The Eye Of The Storm is an easy encounter, jetting by at a cool 31 minutes; it allows Metalstorm to return in a fashion that may not be haute couture but doesn’t press on the attention span too heavily, for better and for worse. For such a long-delayed return to be this energetic is itself impressive, and I will admit that I’m curious to see whether Metalstorm keep this momentum going. For now, it seems that this is one Metalstorm that’s not ready to face the slayer.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 7 |
| Songwriting: | 6 |
| Originality: | 3 |
| Production: | 6 |
Written on 28.04.2026 by
Written on 28.04.2026 by
Dull Music for Dull People Comments
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>Band name Metalstorm >Most basic-ass thrash metal imaginable Sounds about right
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Add all bands whit our name and write getting into article
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