Given the sterling history of quality metal that Stockholm, Sweden has put forth in the past, one cannot help but have high expectations for any band whose origins lay in this fruitful garden or metal magic. Unfortunately for Stormrider, my expectations proved far reaching in comparison to the material found on their debut full-length First Battle Won.

In terms of ability and accuracy, Stormrider do succeed in delivering a crushing onslaught of relentless Death/ Thrash for the entire album, as an acceptable mix of fast and mid-paced numbers pound your ear-drums from start to end. However, nothing stands out or succeeds in really setting Stormrider apart from the overwhelming amount of bands taking a similar approach to this tired genre.

When listening to this album front-to-end, all the songs eventually begin to meld into one another until you are left wondering why the band didn’t add any sort of variety into the mix (apart from the cleanly strummed Dead Love Of Mine Pt.1). I mean, it is nice to see that these guys are doing exactly what they want to do, how they want to do it, but from a metal fan’s viewpoint, this is a sadly unmemorable and run-of-the mill collection of songs.

With an admirable (at best) production rounding things off, the listener is left feeling quite perplexed while wondering why they would listen to this album more than a handful of times. I’m used to saying this about Power Metal bands, but Stormrider really need to put their obvious talents to more original uses. At least the bonus video for Completely Dead (F.T.W.) is good for a laugh.