"Taken by Storm" (1985) Album Description:
Stormwind’s "Taken by Storm" doesn’t walk in politely. It barges in, shakes the rain off its jacket, and starts throwing tight, clipped riffs around like it’s late for work. Recorded at Sound-Partner Studio in Kirchhellen between September and November 1984, then landing in March 1985, it has that North Rhine-Westphalia steel to it: clean bite, no fog, no dreamy excuses. "Hard Sins" and "Chaos" hit fast and straight; "Warlord" hangs around longer, not because the band got philosophical, but because they finally had room to breathe.
West Germany, 1984–85: what was in the air
Düsseldorf in the mid-’80s wasn’t built for softness. Concrete, tramlines, rehearsal rooms that smelled like stale cigarettes and warm amplifiers, and a metal scene that learned to move with its elbows out. Big names were already proving you could sound precise and still be dangerous; smaller bands were trying to get on tape before the lineup changed again.
Even the date has that underground messiness: plenty of people file it under 1984 because that’s when the tape rolled, while the release lands in March 1985 on paper. Both years cling to it like mud on boots. Fine.
Genre context: where it sits by contrast
This is heavy metal with speed in the legs and melody kept on a short rope. The closest neighborhood in 1984–85, without pretending Stormwind were alone on the street:
- Accept for the punch and discipline, though Stormwind carry less arena gloss and more backroom urgency.
- Warlock for the street-level drive; "Thunder & Lightning" even throws a dedication at Doro Pesch, which says a lot about who mattered in the local conversation.
- Running Wild and Grave Digger for that German habit of keeping songs lean and moving, like the clock is always running.
- Sodom and Destruction were sharpening thrash nearby, but Stormwind stay planted in classic heavy metal muscle rather than sprinting into full-on abrasion.
Musical exploration: the sound in the speakers
Two guitars come in like clipped wire—tight, bright, and rehearsed until the corners stop flapping. Drums don’t showboat; they drive. Bass does the unglamorous job, thickening the floor so the riffs don’t skid out.
Most tracks hover around three minutes, because indulgence costs money and this record doesn’t sound rich. "Striker" snaps and disappears before it can get cute. "Thunder & Lightning" swings classic-metal drama without tipping into theatre. "Warlord" is the long one, and it earns the extra real estate by leaning into tension instead of padding.
How the band got to this record (cause/effect, not a scrapbook)
Stormwind formed in February 1980, schoolmates Niko Arvanitis and Rudy Kronenberger starting the thing and dragging it forward until it resembled a real band. Another schoolmate, drummer Olly Kliem, comes in early, and it still takes until 1983 to get a stable lineup and cut a demo. That struggle shows up here as discipline: songs that don’t wander, arrangements that don’t collapse, performances that sound like everyone agreed on the same ending.
Vocals arrive as a turning point: Klaus Lemm joins in 1984, and suddenly the band has a front end that can take the speed and still land a chorus. The album’s tightness isn’t an aesthetic choice; it’s the sound of finally getting the right people in the room before time runs out.
Key people behind the curtain (what they actually did)
Nothing mystical here. Just people doing the work.
- Ferdinand Köther (producer) keeps the sessions pointed in the same direction, picks takes that hit, and gets the whole thing out the door on Wishbone (catalog WBLP 5) instead of leaving it as another “almost” in a rehearsal space.
- Ralph Hubert (engineering) captures the attack cleanly: guitars stay defined, drums stay tight, and the record avoids that mushy underground blur that kills fast songs.
- Sound-Partner Studio, Kirchhellen gives the album its hard edges; the room doesn’t smear the band, it pins them down.
- Detlef Braun (artwork) paints the threat on the front; Claus Werner Dieck (design) does the back-end reality, the part you actually read with the needle still humming.
- Jürgen Schweikert (photography) supplies the human proof, the faces and posture that keep the whole package rooted in its time.
A printed inner sleeve comes with the original LP too, which matters because this band wanted the record to feel like a proper statement, not a flimsy flyer with grooves.
Controversy, or the lack of it
No famous scandal hangs off this release. No courtroom drama, no label war, no headline-friendly stupidity. The only real “controversy” is the usual underground argument: which year counts, the recording year or the release date. People will fight about it with straight faces, because that’s what humans do when the amps are turned off.
One quiet personal anchor
Late-night radio is the right habitat for this record: dial half between stations, static chewing at the edges, and then a riff cuts through like headlights on wet asphalt. Sleep can wait.
References
- Vinyl-Records.nl: Stormwind - "Taken by Storm" (high-resolution cover photos)
- Metal Archives: Stormwind - "Taken by Storm" (album details, credits, notes)
- Metal Archives: Stormwind (band bio, location, timeline)
- Discogs: Stormwind - "Taken By Storm" (release entry)
- The Corroseum: Wishbone Records (label discography listing)
This isn’t a record that asks to be worshipped. It asks to be played loud and judged honestly, which is a much rarer kind of confidence.
