Striker - Ultrapower
Something I say a lot is “less is more,” meaning that I don’t need a lot of bells and whistles to be impressed by a band. Oftentimes when bands throw in either more songs or more sounds, it usually tends not to work. Parts of their sound can get lost in the shuffle, and as great and unique as the album may be, it doesn’t resonate as well with me. A lot of progressive rock and metal bands make me feel that way, because they focus on wanting to be unique and off the wall, versus writing a good and accessible song. A lot of progressive bands can get to the point of self-indulgent and pretentious, and I don’t want to say that the album I’ll be talking about gets to that point, but it gets close. Before I get to that, we need to introduce the album we’ll be discussing today, and that’s the new album from heavy metal band Striker, entitled Ultrapower. This album came out a few weeks ago, but I’ve only listened to it over the last few days, and I decided that I wanted to talk about it.
These guys are a band that I’ve known about and have listened to before, but this is their first album in six years. Their sound has been a mixture of classic traditional heavy metal of the 1980s, AOR, and pop-metal, and they’re one of the better bands doing it. Their last album, Play To Win, was more of a pop-metal album, and I remember it was good, despite nothing worthwhile. Ultrapower is a step up from that record, especially for its sound. This album combines a lot of stuff together, including heavy metal, thrash metal, speed metal, metalcore, AOR, power metal, and even more stuff. See what I mean about this album being a lot? It’s not that it’s bad, or that it isn’t done well, because the thing with this album that frustrates me is that there’s almost too many things that this album tries. That makes me harken back to what I said in the beginning that less is more sometimes, especially when the main core of this band is great. When it comes to their traditional heavy metal sound, it rules. Their vocalist is one of the best in the genre, they’ve got hooks, riffs, and solos for days, and they’re so fun and goofy without feeling like parody.
It’s when the band goes into other styles, or throws in some random moment of another genre that throws me off a bit, and makes the album just feel too stuffed, despite only being 42 minutes. This album isn’t long, but it has a lot of ideas jam packed into it. It’s all done well, but the album never takes a breath with how energetic, off the wall, and intense it gets. You’re just constantly hit with a barrage of riffs, solos, and hooks that sound great, but it becomes a lot after awhile. This album never becomes pretentious or annoying, but it could use a breath or two, and it could have used a trim when it comes to the amount of styles it utilized. I really enjoyed this album, though, and if you want some unique heavy metal with a lot of flavor and some great hooks, you won’t be disappointed. This album is a bit much at times, though, and if it didn’t have so much crammed into it, I’d probably like it a lot more.
