You may be forgiven for not having heard of Stormtrooper. Forming in Bristol in the mid 1970s, they were ahead of the NWOBHM pack and scored a hit on the ‘Sounds’ metal chart with the single ‘Pride Before A Fall’ in 1980 as they rode the same wave as Def Leppard, Iron Maiden and Saxon. But ultimately, circumstance saw them consigned to a footnote in music history as also-rans.
‘Pride Before a Fall: The Lost Album’ gathers the single and its B-side with the remainder of their contemporaneous recordings to compile the Stormtrooper album that could have been, housed in artwork that gives the release the look and feel of a reissue of a late 70s / early 80s release. But does being a lost album correspond to being a lost classic?
The production – the bass sound is a little clumsy and in places, the guitar and vocals a shade thin – does very much place the album in its era, and as such, it’s fairest to bear in mind its context and standing as much as a historical document.
‘Pride Before a Fall’ features fast fretwork, a boogie bassline and spacey synths: in other word, an amalgamation of hard rock and prog. The 12-minute ‘Battle of the Eve’ cranks up the pomp with experimental prog-rock atmospherics are just the first stage in a monster build-up before it all goes Zeppelin with keyboards on top. There are hair and histrionics in abundance, and while some tracks have definitely not dated well (and some, like ‘Bounty Hunter’ and the synth-heavy sections of ‘Still Comin’ Home’, are just bloody awful), others, like ‘In the State in the City’ sound ‘classic’ enough to hold up a lot better, and there are, unquestionably, some stonking riffs to be found here. The last three tracks are sprawling beasts, each clocking in well past the six-minute mark, and indicate the band’s Rush-infused ambition.
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Given that their career was short-lived, it’s hard to really judge what the future could have been for Stormtrooper, but ‘Pride Before a Fall’ documents a band who had the potential to be up there with the big names of the NWOBHM, and doubtless this release will give rock historians cause to reassess Stormtrooper’s place in the burgeoning early 80s metal scene.
Pride Before a Fall: The Lost Album Online at Bristol Archive Records
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