Review: Stargazer – Stone Cold Creature
Mighty Music (September 12th 2025)
Reviewer – David Mark Pearce
80’s metal is back but, hold on, it never went away and that’s certainly true with the latest album by Norway’s finest, Stargazer! Their new album, ‘Stone Cold Creature‘, is a massive slab of hard rock, very much in the vein of Dokken, Kiss and Whitesnake with a healthy dash of TNT thrown in!
Guitarist William Ernstsen is on fire with riffs flying from his fingers like the lasers from the eyes of the wolf on the awesome album artwork – and his solos are just as good. Melodic, with just the right amount of flash where needed. My type of guitar player!
Vocalist Tore André Helgemo compliments everything William creates with such ease. There are great melodies and hooks all over the place, so much so that even without the lyrics in front of you, you find yourself singing along really easily to the choruses. He’s really let off the leash on ‘Screams Break the Silence‘, so just wait until you get to that beauty!
The album opens with their first and second singles – ‘Make a Deal with the Devil‘ and ‘Looking for a Star‘ – starting things off at a fast pace. After that, things slow down a touch for the TNT-esque ‘New Hope‘. Keeping the slower pace, ‘Burning Up Inside‘ follows, with some beautiful soloing from William which makes it morph into 1987 Whitesnake’s ‘Is This Love‘ era kind of vibe! A fitting, but co-incidental, nod to the late John Sykes!
Keyboardist Sondre Bjerkset performs a wonderful thematic interlude with a very short song called ‘No Escape‘. This leads in to the very Kiss sounding (and I do mean very!) ‘Winter is Coming‘, which has a fantastic chorus. I do have to say this ship sails a little too close to the song ‘Danger‘ by Kiss, but the chorus saves it by going off in a different direction and a cracking one it is too!
‘Writing on the Wall‘ has a brilliant mid tempo riff to it that I just have to sit down and learn at some point!
The instrumental ‘The King’s Return‘ takes us into ‘Ice Walker‘, which is a tribute on two levels. It’s very reminiscent of Dokken‘s ‘Under Lock and Key‘ as the opening riff is very similar and the song itself is a tribute to William‘s guitar tech Edgar Andersen who died of cancer in May 2025.
The band is rounded out by bassist Jomar Johansen and drummer Svend Skogheim. However, on the record, we have the mighty Morty Black (formerly of TNT) on bass and drummer Morten Skogstad (from Stage Dolls) on drums who really lock this album down. Jomar plays on the track ‘Screams Break the Silence‘.
That being said, all the musicians (and I should also mention Soren Andersen, who superbly mixed this album) provide the foundation for the rest of the band to well and truly shine in 80’s metal’s enduring spotlight!
I can’t stop playing this album fellas, keep going – I WANT MORE!
Tracklist:
- Make A Deal With The Devil
- Looking For A Star
- New Hope
- Burning Up Inside
- Stone Cold Creature
- No Escape
- Winter Is Coming
- Writings On The Wall
- The King’s Return
- Ice Walker
- Screams Break the Silence
- I Need You Now (More Than Ever)
- What Are You Waiting For
- Riding Through The Night
Line-up:
Tore André Helgemo – vocals
William Ernstsen – guitar
Jomar Johansen – bass
Svend Skogheim – drums
Sondre Bjerkset – keyboards
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