vote
8.0
- Band:
Warrant (de) - Duration: 00:43:16
- Available from: 10/10/2025
- Label:
-
Records massacre
Streaming not yet available
Why love Heavy Metal in its most classic vital form, the primigenia one, which gave the phenomenon to the phenomenon and forever constitutes the true essence of the genre itself?
There are many reasons, but there is one in particular that is comfortable to introduce this review, that is, the 'rediscovery' (bad term, but not to be confused with the even worse 'revaluation') of a whole series of groups now defined as worship, which approximately forty years ago literally explained the ABC of the Heavy, but which for several reasons were unable to leave the sign in a continuous way colleagues.
When we learn that a new LP of the German Warrant is coming out, the sensations are the same felt when a chest reopens in your attic containing something precious, and you don't have to really have lived the eighties to feel nostalgia, musically speaking.
“First Strike” of 1985, our debut EP of ours, is what would be defined as a front assault, learned the lesson of the conterraneous Accept and hardened with flashes of Sodom and Slayer, in just five pieces here you reached an excellence that cannot and must not be forgotten; And in the same year the debut at the long distance “The Enforcer” came out, which immediately marked the dissolution of the band; It then gathered in 1999 with the only leader Jörg Juraschek to pull the ranks of the project.
Outgoing for the German Massacre Records, “The Speed of Metal” is the official return of the Warrant after eleven years of silence, and for ours we immediately put our hands forward: it is a great album.
The original quartet of Düsseldorf overlooks the end of 2025 in a dazzling form, churning out a job that gives the pay to almost all the remaining releases packaged in the Heavy/Speed cauldron, with boundaries in the thrash, of the current year. The quality that impresses more than others of this LP is certainly the ability of each single song, after just a couple of complete listening, to be imprinted in the listener and to release a pleasant sensation, commonly called pleasure.
At this tour Mr. Juraschek has really hit the center, however a fundamental question remains: why the least successful song of the lot was chosen as a single. “Falling Down” in fact, although not of an insufficient level, does not return practically anything about the freshness and the attitude that we will find subsequently, therefore resulting the only “skipable” passage between the nine episodes (excluding the intro) of “The Speed of Metal”. Moving from the proto-thrash inspired by the Overkill of “Demons”, a more aggressive piece of the album and a real attack on the white weapon, at the start of the fulmicotone of “Regain the Fire”, then softening in the refrain by changing shape in a classic concert anthem, the vocal influences of the vocalist Jörg that moves between Udo, blitz and their unforgettable acute are also clear Scratchi who are impressed in the legend of this kind, as well as the two ASCES Michael Dietz and the new entry Adrian Weiss know how to hit and amaze in solo moments – see the solo of “Cry out” in concrete Maidenian style.
Also noteworthy is the chopper “cut into pieces”, speed of execution, a declared goal not to make prisoners and a heavy ending, “Salvation”, Midtempo Heavy strongly debtor of the aforementioned quintet of Solingen, Vestphalia, and above all the final “Scream for Metal”, another potential hymn to be shared on the wooden axes of all of Europe as possible explosive.
We keep “Windy City” and “It's up to you” last not because they are negligible, but because it is two special cases, respectively cover of The Sweet divinely released and re-registration of the song already published as Demo in 1999, which would win the palm of the “best track” if it were an unpublished.
In summary, “The Speed of Metal”, in spite of a fairly trivial title, is an important piece that certifies the state of full health of the real and qualitative Heavy Metal, and in particular for the Warrant it represents a decisive step forward after the non -exhilarating “Metal Bridge” released in 2014; In addition to being a higher product from the point of view of songwriting, the newcomer also has a less 'plastic' production of the predecessor also by Steel Records, as well as a greater rate of sound violence.
The wish for ours is not to let us expect an equally long period of time for the new material, and our listening advice, to all the assaavy/Speed Eighty -long but not only, is of the most felt and highly boiled. Last foot note to be dedicated to the average level of contemporary metal albums from Germany, which continues to prove to be promised and pregnant with interesting exits in relation to our universe.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
