BLACK HAWK
“Soulkeeper”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

10/10

Black Hawk are a heavy metal band from Germany who have enjoyed a four decade career, releasing their debut album ‘First Attack’ in 1989! But it is only during the last two decades the band have been prolific, releasing six albums in just twelve years – with the bands eighth album ‘Soulkeeper’ emerging in 2023.

Formed during the glorious eighties for heavy metal evolution, Black Hawk have a sound that is reminiscent of legendary bands such as Accept, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Saxon – power driven heavy metal that is immensely infectious and highly head bang-able. The bands new album is ten songs and fifty minutes of old school sounding, “foot on the monitor” traditional heavy metal – with album opener (and title song) ‘Soulkeeper’ an absolute barnstormer! Hitting the ground running, Black Hawk pull no punches, landing haymaker riffs with a tremendous amount of energy and force! Fellow German metallers Rage are renowned for delivering thrashy power come heavy metal – Black Hawk too, injecting thrash elements into their core metal sound. A belter of a start…

…simply gets better – the band powering on with the classic foot on the monitor feel of ‘Angry Machines’. And a thunderous rhythm akin to British metallers Saxon. The glorious eighties may have been forty years ago, but the decade’s metal evolution is still influencing bands today! A simply sensational time, and one I’m glad I was a part of! Without dropping the incredible intensity, Black Hawk move on with the most gorgeous sounding NWOBHM riff – ‘War Zone’ echoing the iconic sound down to a tee! Head bangingly addictive, ‘War Zone’ is the best of the bunch heard so far – the chorus a chant style affair that’s surely gonna be sung, shouted and screamed loud in a live arena! And the classic sounding metal continues apace with a retrospective look at the past. Lyrically, ‘Better Times’ describes exactly that – “better times”! It’s a common presumption that the past was a better time, and it’s one I totally agree with. But sadly we can’t go back in time, so we’ll just have to make the best of the present, and future. And with bands like Black Hawk around – at least the future of heavy metal is looking very good!

The worldwide COVID19 pandemic of 2020 is the subject matter of ‘Survivor’ – a pandemic that basically saw the world shut down, go into lockdown, turning our smiles upside down, with isolation making us seriously frown! Me included – having contracted the virus myself and spending two weeks on my Jack Jones! Not a very good time believe me. But thankfully I was a survivor, and can relate to everything Black Hawk sing about – really loving the sing a long chant style chorus. Introducing a little menace, the band hammer home ‘Bells Of Death’ at a very heavy foot stomping pace, the intensity as immense as it has been since the album began! And with a sudden upturn in energy and speed, the band storm on with ‘Bullet’ – by far and away the fastest song heard so far! The level of head bang ability has just shot through the fucking roof, with mosh pits and metalheads going absolutely crazy. What a moment, and what a song!

And by stark contrast, Black Hawk enter ballad country with ‘Mystic’, and a mellowness not heard previously – ’til the two minute twenty second mark when a swift change of pace and feel sees ‘Mystic’ thunder stomp on with more authority than any other song on offer! The bravado of ‘Mystic’ is incredible, striding on with head held high majesty! ‘We Stay Strong’ brings back the thundering old school flavour of earlier – but with added oomph! Black Hawk have endless energy, every song on the album featuring an explosive blend of pace and pizzazz that hits the sweet spot hard – very hard! Bringing a very good album to a close, is a new anthem for the worldwide rockers and metallers – ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll In My Head’. And believe me when I say, you’ll be chanting the chorus for a very long time after the song ends. The infectious level is incredible, ending ‘Soulkeeper’ (the album) on an ecstatic high.

Overall, an energy laden, full on roller coaster ride of infectious traditional heavy metal with one hundred percent head bang ability.

TRACKLIST

Soulkeeper
Angry Machines
War Zone
Better Times
Survivor
Bells Of Death
Bullet
Mystic
We Stay Strong
Rock ‘N’ Roll In My Head

https://www.black-hawk-music.de/
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