Warbringer – "Wrath And Ruin"
"Nothing left to say – swing the hammer away!"
If you like thrash metal – and hey, what's not to like? – you will at least have heard of Warbringer. Although not an A-list name by any stretch, and although having acted as a revolving door of band members coming and going around a couple of original ones, the name Warbringer has been active for more than 20 years. Yeah, we're gettin' old and all that.
Anyway, I couldn't name you any one song of theirs. That is, until today, upon having given their latest record a handful of spins. It's like, even seeing the band logo, you pretty much know what you're gonna get. And with the sudden thrash deluge from the mid-00's pizza wave – think bands like Municipal Waste, Gama Bomb, Havok, and Toxic Holocaust – I didn't feel very inspired to check out another one. Not that I don't enjoy a solid banger when I hear one, but I also gotta keep up with the actual A-listers AND dig into those albums by Grand Funk Railroad and Kansas that I haven't even heard yet. And that's twice I've italicized the word "heard" now. Whoop, three times.
Anyway x 2. Turns out this jolly group of headbangers from sunny Ventura not only know their way around a fretboard and a drum kit; they also play with all the ferocity of any other respectable band in their subgenre of choice. And they also manage to optimally utilize the disposable means of variation in said subgenre.
That said, opener "The Sword and the Cross", as one might expect, is pretty much a rapid frenzy with a liberal use of the open E-string (although I'm guessing downtuned to D or Db). The build-up sounds a lot like this little 1985 ditty, name of "Hell Awaits". A demonically raspy scream; some punchy drum breaks; lotta 16th-note jig saw riffing. It's not ambitious, but it's written and played by any and all imaginable standards, and the red-hot result transcends the sum of its parts. Although follow-up "A Better World" largely plays out by that same aggressive attitude, its cadence is much more melodic, even hinting at folk music by ending on the tonic chord. It reminds me of early In Flames (back when they were cool, of course), and I was actually thinking whether this might have been the lead single – turns out it totally was. I rule.
As the album progresses, those little standout moments, then, increase to become much bigger moments of much more variation. For example, "Neuromancer" (hey, SepticFlesh has a track by that name!) is half-time-based, and its main feature almost ends up being a LOUD ride cymbal bell. I'm guessing producer Mark Lewis must've lost a bet to drummer Carlos Cruz.
Warbringer not only know their way around a fretboard and a drum kit; they also play with all the ferocity of any other respectable band in their subgenre of choice.
Interjected with the purest of thrash, then, are compositions like "Through a Glass, Darkly", a huge, heavy waltz cultivating a bleak Minor-key and a stark pathos. As vocalist John Kevill dramatically exclaims, "Once more I live / And once more I die", it's as if the howling lead guitar is trying to one-up him in pure suffering. And "Cage of Air", perhaps the compositionally most interesting piece, features not only violent blastbeats, but pure black metal – both of the melodic and the dissonant kind, along with a lead guitar reminiscent of this one little group called Ulver.
As should be unnecessary to reiterate, though, most of "Wrath and Ruin" takes place above 170 BMP in a most straightforward fashion. And the absolute cue here would have to be ultrasonic "The Jackhammer". Even in all its white-hot viciousness, the animalistic shouting still manages to incline towards catchy. And as a wondrous vocal break exclaims, "NOTHING LEFT TO SAY! / SWING! THE HAMMER! AWAAAAAYYYYY!", we're going down – not into half-time, but into around 1/3 of the original pace. Just goes to show, you don't need to play that "deathcore" thingy to be heavy as fuck.
Overall, Warbringer are betting more on aggression than on memorable elements. Which is fine. It doesn't make for a masterpiece album, but it sure as shit makes for a true fucking metal album. And while I probably won't be actively diving into the band's discography anytime soon (still not all the way there with Grand Funk), I certainly wouldn't mind it if someone sat me down with an older Warbringer album and a case of beer. And, for that matter, I dunno, maybe some tacos or something? Write me.
Rating: 4.5 out of 6
Genre: Thrash metal
Release date: 14/3/2025
Label: Napalm Records
Producer: Mark Lewis