Striker - Road Warrior (2009) - A fast-paced retro metal fun ride - 69% (27/05/14)

The first strike of this speed metal band from Edmonton formed back in 2007 is entitled “Road Warrior” and includes four regular tracks plus a bonus song as well as a Grim Reaper cover. The five young Canadians also rereleased the songs from this EP on a new special edition of their first regular studio record “Eyes in the Night”. If you are able to get your hands on that combined package, don’t hesitate to grab it.

The six songs released on this twenty-six minutes long record in 2009 are all very energizing and quite a fun ride. The opening title track “Road Warrior” makes clear right from the start that these crazy Canadians are one of the best heavy and speed metal revival bands. The track is guided by powerful piercing falsetto screams and an excellent variable clean vocal performance. The speed metal riffs and the powerhouse drumming are straight in your face while the almost power metal driven chorus won’t leave your mind anytime soon. The slightly more modern bonus track and live anthem “The Keg That Crushed New York” hits a similar vein but features a more distorted guitar sound and a modern breakdown that adds a rather unusual idea to the genre.

The band also shows some variation on this short release. “Lord of the Sword” is more of a classic mid-tempo heavy metal track with great guitar solos while “Dark Heart Of The City” is the most diversified track on here with a calm introduction and beautiful guitar melodies before one gets the best ingredients of American power metal, speed metal and even a few thrash metal influenced parts.

These guys are clearly influenced by legends such as Annihilator, Crimson Glory, Exciter, Grim Reaper, Judas Priest, King Diamond, Vicious Rumours and so on but they manage to sound fresh and honest to not sound too old school against their own good. These guys don’t reinvent anything but they do what they do with conviction and passion and you really can feel this spirit on this EP. Among many other similar bands these days like Evil Survives, RAM, Ryder, Steelwing, White Wizzard, XspendX and so on Striker are clearly among the best thanks to their positive party attitude and some good skills on the instruments. Genre fans should definitely get their hands on this record but the upcoming regular albums are still clearly better than this first strike.

Originally written for The Metal Observer