AXEMASTER – Of Beasts And Plagues

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4.5

• Bands:
  AXEMASTER
• Duration: 00:55:33
• Available from: 06/19/2026
• Label:

• Cosmic Fire Records

There are audio editing programs that allow you to isolate the various instruments, so as to better evaluate their performance with possible subsequent refinements: in the case of Axemaster and their new album, the present one “Of Beasts And Plagues” this case, without delaying too much, the best solution would be to extrapolate the entire vocal performance and simply throw it in the bin.
This is the fifth recording chapter of the American band, whose foundation takes us up to 1982: theirs is a raw heavy/power, at times powerful, with hints of Metal Church, Accept and Cirith Ungol, in the darkest and most epic passages.

His career does not include any high-profile publications, and so, after his 1987 debut entitled “Blessing In The Skies”, the twists and turns are directed towards the fate of the line-up and his moniker. For four years, from '91 to '95 they were called The Awakening, while at the end of the first decade of the new millennium, there was another name, Inner Terror. The new path does not last long and in 2010 the guitarist and founder of the band Joe Sims decides to return to the origins by publishing “Overture To Madness” (2015) and “Crowling Chaos” (2017) with the moniker of the first hour, anticipating a silence that will last for eleven years.
A sound pause that allows Sims to review the lineup again, completely changing the rhythm section; however, the second guitarist Scott Eicher (who joined in 2022) and, above all, the singer Geoff McGraw, already a protagonist in the last two albums, remain in their place.
And it is precisely the latter that distinguishes the performances of the Ohio band for the worse: if in the two previous works, some spirited 'flickers' had raised the general tension, in “Of Beasts And Plagues” the situation remains on a level of authentic sing-song. A baritone tone that ranges between speech and unconvincing singing, without giving the right bite to plots, which in truth are not even very inspired: take “Danse Macabre” for example; more than a macabre dance it seems like a litany without rhyme or reason, aggravated by an almost anonymous refrain.
The same thing is repeated in most of the pieces: “Dragon Rising” seems to have a few more interesting details but, apart from a few ideas, it is still McGraw's personalityless tone that weighs (forgive the pun) on the final outcome of the piece and, even in the occasions where the hype rises that much, “Clinging To Life” and “The Dark Side”, the overall trend settles on monotonous and not at all interesting tracks.

Skipping between one song and another becomes almost obligatory, desperately searching for some melodic hold that will soften the perpetual, sing-song performance of the American frontman. And if, as they say, we really have to save what can be saved, let's hold on to “Kissed With A Fist”, if only for its slightly more intense pace than the remaining tracks.
Branded by an equally insipid cover, Axemaster's new album is frankly avoidable.