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Warbringer: War without end
25/01/11 || InquisitorGeneralis
The recent thrash revival is growing on me, I must admit. It took a long time but discovering new, quality bands like Hexen and Vektor has helped stimulate my interest in what the Young Turks are doing in the thrash world these days. I still don’t like Municipal Waste and Toxic Holocaust, but I am coming around to other, more interesting new shit. It warms my cholesterol-covered heart to see that there are bands coming out of the USA who reject the shittiness of deathcore and worship at the altar of speed, moshing, and the one true breakdown that does not require the music to slow down to the same fucking pace each time and band to all bend over like they are sucking their own dicks. Not every American kid who likes metal listens to cockpuke like Suicide Silence and Chelsea Grin. There is hope for us here amongst the amber waves of grain, and Warbringer is a prime example of it. Also, I have been going through a serious phase of rediscovering older bands like Exhorder, Death Angel, Demolition Hammer, Dekapitator, and Overkill. To sum it all up, my vagina is wide open for thrash penetration. Well, more wide open than usual.
Fellow staffer and bromantic friend “Trauma” knows a guitarist from this band. Or dated one, I can’t remember. His thoughts on Warbringer’s most recent album can be found here. The Traumanator has excellent taste in music but I definitely look upon Warbunny in a more positive light. I like the extra heaviness that these Californian’s bring to the table. This is much more like late 80’s and early 90’s thrash in the vein of classic, heavier albums like “Beneath the Remains” and “South of Heaven”. There are plenty of standard thrash tempos and Warbringer certainly are not inventing anything new, but they definitely throw some death metal elements into the mix.
The lyrics a bit goofy and focus on… you guessed it…. war! And zombies too. What do you expect from a band named Warbringer and an album named “War Without End”? If you want serious thought-provoking lyrics go listen to The Ocean or something. “War Without End” earns big points for aggression and heaviness but loses a few for some sloppy playing and production. I get big whiffs of Demolition hammer when I hear heavy hitters like “Systematic genocide” and “Combat shock”. Both of those songs are absolute winners and feature some heavy, groovy moments that help set Warbringer apart from other successful contemporaries like Violator and Toxic Holocaust. “Hell on earth” and “Born of ruins” are also top tier, aggressive tracks.
Warbringer manage to incorporate the shredding solos that are necessity in the thrash world. Laux and Carroll are a solid guitar team. The band does a nice job of mixing up the tempos behind those solos; some are backed up with faster sections while others get slower tempos and rolling double bass. Credit here goes to drummer Ryan Bates who, while not pumping out gravity blasts, clearly knows what the fuck he is doing behind ze kit. This shit with the solos is a subtle thing to do, and for me to point out, but it really helps add diversity to the album’s overall sound and feel. You have to stand out in the thrash game today.
There are some flaws on “War without end” that bring the score down a bit; the songwriting needs some work, the vocals could be heavier, and the production needs to be a bit finer tuned. However, all the necessary pieces for a solid thrash album are there. I think they fixed many of these issues on the follow-up “Walking into Nightmares”. Needless to say, I am pretty fucking exciting for what is coming down the pipe from Warbringer in the future. Keep on listening to Demolition Hammer fellas, as long as you bring the heaviness you will always stand out from the rest of the new thrash rat pack.
- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Century Media Records
- Website: Warbringer MySpace
- Band
- John Kevill: vocals
- John Laux: guitar
- Adam Carroll: guitar
- Andy Laux: bass
- Ryan Bates: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Total War
- 02. Systematic Genocide
- 03. Dread Command
- 04. Hell on Earth
- 05. At the Crack of Doom
- 06. Beneath the Waves
- 07. Instruments of Torture
- 08. Shoot to Kill
- 09. Born of the Ruins
- 10. Combat Shock
- 11. A Dead Current
