Right from the onset, things look kinda grim for the oddly named Significant Point. First off is the weird name, and second is the title, Into The Storm, one of the most overused phrases in metal along with "tears / bodies / stars fall like rain," "warriors," and "set me free." Luckily for us though, these warning signs of buttrock danger are quickly shown to be a combination of youthful and fervent energy for high speed metal worship and probably some cultural differences seeing as how Significant Point hail from Japan.

As soon as one finds out that Significant Point are from Japan things begin to be much clearer. Just like every city has its own particular brand of shitty drivers, every country tends to have its own flavor of metal. Japan tends to lean towards the highly skilled, technical, fast, melodic style of metal as shown with bands such as Galneryus and X-Japan. This holds true for Significant Point as well because a simple way to compare them would be to say that they are like Skull Fist mixed with more Helloween style guitar speed solos due to their Japanese leanings. And man, there is a shit ton of speed here. Despite the super cliche title, Into The Storm is a how-to guide for playing exuberant and impassioned metal in 2021. There are no gimmicks here, no storylines, no ballads(!!!), just a full on assault on the senses from the word go.

More of the literary charm comes forth in the first two speedster monsters, Attacker and Heavy Attack. What immediately grabs the listener's attention is that the production job on Into The Storm makes this sound like an album that was made in a room with other people and recorded with a sense of wild and loose energy that comes from being overly excited and not having much time in the studio. Anyways, Attacker sets the tone and Heavy Attack brings it on home. I should mention the vocals because this guy is very much a type that fits the music completely and utterly well, but non speed metal aficionados might have a hard time with the completely over the top singing. He doesn't reach the stratospheric highs of say, Jim Gilette, but this is that same manic, intense, high wailing screaming singing style. This guy has no chill whatsoever at any point in this album.

So far everything is hitting every spot in just the right way when the proverbial bull charges in the china shop and takes a fat dump on the floor. You've Got The Power sounds like the title to an eighties montage and then the main riff is straight up Breaking The Law played sideways. Thankfully, they avoid mentioning "Saturday Night" and somehow they manage to ride the razor thin line of this almost sounding like a parody but they keep the course and at worst this sounds like a soundtrack to some wild ninja mechazoid movie. So it still ends up being pretty cool. There's a few more spots like this on Into The Storm (the title being one of them) but again, they end up on the right side of that line that keeps them from devolving into meme territory. There's impressive solos all over this album. They run the gamut in terms of style and come at you with lots of supreme and erotic bending (Run For Your Life), double guitar harmony madness, tapping tapping tapping, and Night Of The Axe even has a drum n bass spot with wild insane soloing meant for foot on monitor action. I probably like the sounds these guys are making because I am old and like classic metal a bunch, but something anyone can appreciate is their stamina and commitment to an ideal such as speed metal purity. The aforementioned production adds greatly to the feeling that these guys are just ripping it in the studio and playing on the edge of their abilities at all times.

Into The Storm feels like it was practically made for me in the same way that Stormwarrior's debut album did back in 2002. Both bands and their respective debuts show sincere passion for the type of music that they play. Because of this, their ideas and excitement make up for some intensely cliched moments that would otherwise have me slashing red ink all over their songs. At the very least, we can give guys like Significant Point the benefit of the doubt and say that the cliche moments are born from genuine love of the music and not some calculated ploy to generate algorithmic clicks. This is essential metal for fans of speed metal, classic metal, and for people that love that loose and wild feeling of everything being on the verge of going off the rails at all times. This album is made to raise the pulse. If your favorite song on albums is the ballad, then Significant Point will probably make you anxious and angry.