Canada’s heavy metal heroes Striker have been launching throwback volleys at the masses since 2009. Their style blends traditional metal ideas with power and thrash influences, often to good effect and they’ve always been capable of hooky songcraft. They also have a tendency to be tongue-in-cheek at times, refusing to take themselves too seriously. These are all admirable traits and make Striker easy to root for. Despite these pluses, they’ve struggled to craft consistently hard-hitting albums. Here comes seventh outing, Ultrapower, with a craptastic cover and an even worse band photo. Add a saxophone-heavy lead single and you have a very nervous Steel sitting down in his luxury review pod with notebook in hand. Will these determined underdogs finally drop the all-killer-no-filller platter they seem so capable of making? I’m pulling for them, against all odds.
As Striker are wont to do, they lead with one of their best punches on opener “Circle of Evil.” This is Striker in all their trad/thrash glory, kicking copious amounts of ass while affixing the hooks to your pasty flesh. If you were to play this for your average metal-minded droog, you’d get a righteous “FUCK YEAH!” The crunchy riffs are tasty, the vocals are commanding and there’s a touch of Mystic Prophecy to the romping and stomping. It leaves you lathered up, feisty, and ready for 40 more minutes of likeminded fare. Then in a classic Striker move, they pull a bait and switch with “Best of the Best of the Best” which sounds like it’s off the soundtrack to a Grade E 80s martial arts flick featuring Jeff Speakman. Because Striker are so damn earnest, it almost works despite the near-deadly cheese levels and it makes me want to sucker kick Mr. Miyagi. Still, it’s a pretty tough sell overall. While you recover from musical whiplash, they break out the 80s sax appeal for “Give It All” which can only be described as super cheesy 80s radio rock perfectly suited for a high school wrestling training montage straight outta Vision Quest. I really want to hate this song, but I love it and now I hate myself.
This is how the rest of Ultrapower plays out. You get clubbed with a tasty tune, then trolled by something silly or stupid. I truly love “Ready for Anything.” It’s punchy, rabble-rousing and is now my go-to heavy cardio music. But wow, I do not love “Sucks to Suck” which is just plain dumb and smacks of dreck like Ugly Kid Joe. “City Calling” is like an unsuccessful collaboration between Extreme and Faith No More with little nuggets of inspiration drowned amid poor choices. Closer “Brawl at the Pub” is heavy but also brainless and annoying, closing a confusing album in an unsatisfying way. It’s tough to get a handle on what Striker was going for here. There are a lot of moments that ape The Night Flight Orchestra with the 80s being a big influence. I’m totally fine with that, especially on the songs that verge on Journey / Survivor-core (“Live to Fight Another Day”), but the range of styles they throw at you is too much, and too many things just don’t work. At 41-plus minutes, the energy level is kept high and it’s a breezy listen, if not a consistently good one.
Striker are never short on talent and ability. Timothy Brown and John Fallon can rip it up with their axes, laying down thrashy and traditional metal riffs as the songs demand, and they can wail come solo time too. Dan Cleary is a fine metal vocalist, possessing enough power and range to be convincing and versatile. Even the mega-cheeseball 80s keyboards are generally well-integrated. It’s ultimately their writing that bites them in the ass on roughly half the songs. Inconsistent songcraft has been their Achilles’ Heel in the past and here it becomes a full-on Achilles’ bone spur.
This is one of the most frustrating albums I’ve heard in a while. I want to love it because when it’s good, it’s SO good, and there are four songs here that I can’t get enough of. But man, the remainder is tough sledding and Steel is nobody’s sled dog. Striker can pen some highly entertaining metal, but they can’t seem to do it across an entire release. They managed about half an album’s worth of high-quality material here, but I expect better success ratios in my metal. This is more Low-T than Ultrapower.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 160 kbps mp3
Label: Record Breaking Records
Websites: striker-metal.com | facebook.com/strikermetal
Releases Worldwide: February 2nd, 2024
