Despite being located in the centre of the country, Northamptonshire is a locale that often gets overlooked by the mainstream media. It’s a strange anomaly because the county has a rich and vibrant scene that includes artists of every stripe and persuasion, and spearheading the metal assault are Stormbringer. Formed in 2011, they’ve pretty much ticked every box on a national level (including sets at Bloodstock and Download) and are primed and ready to take things to the next level. Featuring ten tracks and produced by famed twiddler Russ Russell, album number five, Transcendence, is certain to be their ticket to bigger things.

Some music immediately grabs you by the short and curlies and gives a good tug, and that’s certainly the case with opening track ‘Energy’. Introduced by the kind of riff you wish AC/DC would still write, it bottles the excitement of a Triumph Bonneville ticking over and the hum of a Marshall amplifier, encapsulating all that’s great about classic rock infused modern metal. It’s an aptly-titled rocker that immediately gets blood flowing and sets pulses racing, and as such has a life-affirming quality. Full of spidery solos and powered forwards by an unstoppable rhythm section, ‘Energy’ clocks in at just under four minutes and is just the kind of short, sharp, shock that’s required; five years after their last album, it finds Stormbringer firmly planting their flag in rock’s fertile soil, sending a message that they’ve returned to reclaim their crown.

Transcendence is an album in constant motion with each of the ten tracks inhabiting a different sonic space, yet ‘Energy’ is indicative of the rest of the album insofar as there’s a serious lack of fluff on this record. When composing this album it feels as if the band have indulged in some judicial pruning, trimming off any excess fat until all that’s left is pure, unadulterated song. Tracks such as ‘Busy Doing Nothing’ contain not one superfluous note, giving Transcendence an urgency and immediacy. It means that even when the band take their foot off the accelerator, such as on ‘Dirt And Bone’, there’s no depreciable loss of power and remain just as potent as when they set the hounds free on the high-octane ‘Grow’.

Whilst Stormbringer’s influences can be detected throughout this album, it is to their credit that they sound like no one but themselves. It’s a hard and heavy brand of metal contained in songs like ‘Cut The Vein’, the band swinging from speaker to speaker with wrecking ball force. Think a hungover grizzly, rudely awoken and on a naked rampage, then you’d have something approaching the visceral power of ‘Cut The Vein’. Yet, there’s also a cerebral edge to the band’s songwriting, a lyrical depth that touches upon existential issues and themes that cut to the quick of the human experience. It’s light and shade, a neat tension of opposites that makes closer (and, indeed, the whole album) ‘Damn You All’ heavy and lithe, swaying like a welterweight. And just like going ten rounds with a prizefighter, Transcendence will leave you battered and bruised (but in the best possible way, of course).

Long player number five finds Stormbringer at the top of their game with an album that transcends easy categorisation and sets a high standard for all who follow.

• Transcendence is released via Attic Records on 4th September 2026.

Track List:

1. Energy
2. Busy Doing Nothing
3. Other of 2
4. Dirt and Bone
5. Grow
6. Cut The Vein
7. All Along
8. Whole Again
9. Scapegoat
10. Damn You All