Fringe rebellion quickly turns to outright revolt as the occupied, raped, and spiritually maligned call upon their brothers to reap their chains and reduce their oppressors to dust as Barcelona, Spain-based heavy metal quintet WHIRLWIND command the listener to strike first and strike strong on this inspired sophomore full-length album. Refined and expanded in ouevre the band’s efforts on ‘1640’ are no less enchanted by the history of Catalan resistance and yet persist with Teutonic heavy metal inspired craft on this late 80’s power metal styled second album. Broadened in blade yet unbent their work here stretches into longer epics and earlier 80’s classicism in achieving an even more substantive, better rounded experience than before.

Whirlwind formed by way of guitarist Mark Wild (Körgull the Exterminator, ex-Graveyard) in the distant past but hadn’t been announced until a quartet was formed and an album was largely underway in early 2022. Their ranks included drummer Jordi Julió and lead guitarist Artur Julió, who’ve collaborated on many Barcelona-area groups over the years including power metal band Steelforce, and vocalist Héctor Llauradó who’d performed in various thrash, rock and heavy metal groups prior. There wasn’t much context supplied their debut LP (‘1714‘, 2022) upon delivery and despite carrying a fairly interesting theme centered on wars/movements pertaining to Catalan history. That album sounded a lot like classic early 90’s Running Wild at face value but more broadly resembled 80’s German heavy metal and especially the power/speed metal of the late 80’s/early 90’s such as Helloween. Their goal and purpose was to make a classic heavy metal album it was a solid first entry where the collective experience of their troupe rang loud as Hell.

For this second record Whirlwind rewind time well before the War of the Spanish Succession depicted in ‘1714‘ and now land upon 1640 an important year for the “reaper’s war”, or, Catalan Revolution as a major event within the durance of the Thirty Years War. I am more qualified to argue the importance of Scorpions over Priest in terms of power metal’s early inflections than I am mid-17th century European wars of contested succession but either way the lyrics here read more as battle hymns relevant to Catalan independence than they do history lessons. Without any access at present the assumption is that the lyric sheet will include similar context as found on the previous LP. This extra layer of interest is exactly the sort of thing which best captivates those of us who value packaging which includes lyrics, communicates meaning, and reflects the style of the band in general.

Generally speaking ‘1640‘ repeats much of the general dynamic of its predecessor with the heavier, more urgent Running Wild-fumed pieces up front before veering into epic heavy and power metal-minded actions on the way through. This time around they’ve made an effort to dip further back toward the mid-80’s and throw a few heavy metal stompers in the midst (see: “Through Fire and Blood”) where the broader influence of German steel is most obvious. Production values are entirely similar in their slightly juiced and sharply present approximation of late 80’s/early 90’s tonality sans any overblown reverb on the snare, now featuring a little bit more double bass drumming by my own measure. Some greater feature of bass guitar (see: “Winds of Ash and Dust”) offer some promising nodes here and there but vocal melodies, shout-alongs and riffs are still the major motion of their gig.

Whirlwind‘s craft finds its most comfortable sweet spot early on with anthemic pieces such as the ‘Battalions of Fear‘ rushed “Days of Doom“, standout favorite “Rage of the Conqueror” and the rousing sojourn through “Lese Majesty (Corpus de Sang)” as these will immediately invoke some evolution of what they’d accomplished on ‘1714‘. That is more-or-less what I was looking for heading in and is yet their bread and butter action though I’d appreciated efforts to broaden their pitch via the aforementioned jog-and-strike of “Through Fire and Blood” and to some degree the heavy rocking “By the Blood in Our Veins” as these break away from power metal tunneling and into more open-aired keepin’ it true fare. The pace is brisk, melodies uncomplicated and overall they’ve been very consistent in realizing this album as a successor to the last.

Potentially the most interesting development here, beyond some of the ace guitar work found on “Lese Majesty”, is the narrative supplied the ‘epic’ closer “Marching to Victory” and this was where I’d wanted the context of the lyric sheet most, uh, beyond the obvious. Within this ~thirteen minute piece we get a glimpse of the band’s take on epic heavy metal and… it is a glorious thing from my perspective where Llauradó pushes and frays his tone to heights you won’t find on their other songs while Whirlwind use the wider-open spaces of the format to flex outside of the tightened action elsewhere. While the band’ve some great strength in the ~four minute traditional heavy metal sphere they gain more readily unique character in the span of the closing piece here than expected and I’d like to hear more of it from them.

The goalpost hasn’t shifted in any sense and righteously so, there is no new gimmickry or pivot to be found here as Whirlwind are yet steadfast in their tributes to classics-inspired heavy metal. Elements of speed metal and old German power metal help to hold my interest in this regard and it never feels like they’re dumbing shit down or softening any of their impact for the sake of tunefulness or sentimentality. I figure this album will hold folks’ attention better than their last for the sake of greater variety and tightened, sometimes more ambitious pieces highlighting the run through. A moderately high recommendation.

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