An intro with a little part of a speech of Winston Churchill and diving war planes… Where do I know this from? “Aces High”? Of course… Stuka Squadron seems to be nickname for a German warplane and it is the name of a band. On their website the band makes clear they have nothing to do with idolizing the German army but at the same time they wrote some kind of concept CD about World War II, at the east front… Looking at the band’s pictures these guys really are confusing me, find it out yourself. Anyway, “Tales O The Ost” has a very nice front cover and to me there are reasons enough to dig the CD.
Musical wise it is clear that Stuka Squadron is mainly influenced by the NOWBHM movement, understandable if you know this is a British band. The sound of this record is more up-to-date but I wasn’t that wrong if I immediately made a connection with Iron Maiden. Well, there is more to tell because also a bunch of other Heavy Metal bands are crossing my mind. Stuka Squadron tries to pull the listener into the concept by weaving samples in and between the songs. Those typical sounds of war planes, they don’t miss their effects.
Anyway, I was telling that Stuka Squadron contains a more modern sound and therefore they remind me to other nowadays Metal bands for whom Iron Maiden was the main source of inspiration. You don’t hear me say that Stuka Squadron can hook up with a band like Powerwolf, not at all with the originals… Therefore the songwriting isn’t strong enough and too much cloned. The ideas are good but Stuka Squadron needs also musical wise its own identity. They have looks that are remarkable, even could shock some, but I need more originality into the music as well. Too often I think about Maiden and that’s never really good…
Yet I believe the band contains musicians who are able to find their own path and singer Duke Fang Begley has everything a good front man needs! A good voice, no doubt about it! If the band could add more power, more balls into their music it wouldn’t hurt them either. In “On The Volga Bridge” and “Tiger I” I hear some things the band needs to explore in the future…
Not at all a bad album but this is the kind of CD’s you should buy at the outlets. Stuka Squadron offers their first album, after an EP and isn’t able to maintain all my attention during the entire disc. I didn’t hear any exceptional tracks and therefore I conclude this is another ‘middle of the road’ band… http://www.stukasquadron.com.
My Points: 75 / 100 (Review by Officer Nice)
