STRIKER’s New Music Video Captures ’80s Saxophone Metal At Its Best
Remember the glory days of the ’80s…. and the world’s most jacked and shirtless saxophone player Tim Cappello (Tina Turner, 1987 vampire film The Lost Boys)…? Well, the shred masters in Striker have resurrected that nostalgic sound from those iconic years with their saxophone mashup track “Give It All” beautifully wrapped up in a retro-fitting music video that can be viewed below.
“‘Give it All’ is a song written for the soundtrack of an 80s action movie that doesn’t exist. It’s for the kid risking it all to win the big game, or the down-and-out cop that’s gotta push it to the limit to survive.” adds the band.
This latest single from Striker is off their forthcoming new album ULTRAPOWER produced with Josh Schroeder (Lorna Shore, Tallah, King 810) and due out on February 2, 2024. The seventh full-length from Striker follows their Juno Award-winning self-released record Play to Win (2018) unleashed on their label Record Breaking Records and features the band’s latest lineup addition of long-time friend and guitarist John Simon Fallon (The Order of Chaos).
With the band writing material since 2018, ULTRAPOWER is a collection of Striker tinkering and exploring new avenues. From the album’s opening track “Circle of Evil“, a Malmsteen-esque metal banger about secret societies and the evil dealings behind closed doors to their previously released single “BEST of the BEST of the BEST” serving up some big riffs and hockey arena vocals to “Blood Magic”, which might be one of Striker’s most progressive songs, taking cues from bands like King Diamond, with its unconventional structure and punctuated guitar solos. From the band delving into their obsession for late 80s AOR and pop rock with “City Calling”, an ode to 1987, and bands like Toto and Kenny Loggins with their hook-powered albums. To fans experiencing the band’s first attempt at a synth-wave track with “Live to Fight Another Day”, this new offering sees Striker making a shredding love letter to the hard-rocking era of guilty pleasures.
The band comments on the upcoming album:
“Starting with the album cover, we wanted the artwork to represent how we feel as a band right now. We are an engine that is fired up and ready to roll. We’re made of metal and our circuits gleam! The album itself is an amalgamation of 5 years of writing and exploring music. With influences from AOR to Speed Metal, Hardcore to Hair Metal, Steely Dan to Deathcore, you name it, it made its way into the album. In the end with the help of Josh Schroeder’s guiding hand, we melted it all together to present something uniquely Striker. Lyrically we’ve stuck to the Striker tradition of writing montage songs for movies that don’t exist, songs about our spiraling serfdom, and lyrics about the evils that lurk in the shadows.”
ULTRAPOWERÂ is due out on February 2, 2024, and is available for pre-order here.