vote
8.0
- Band:
Warbringer - Duration: 00:40:05
- Available from: 03/14/2025
- Label:
-
Napalm Records
Streaming not yet available
In the sign of the double W – First letter of the title of each of their albums, with the exception of “IV: empires Collapse” – proudly preamble for wars, musical and textual, punctually exhibited in their records, the Warbinger start again in the attack according to their canons in “Wrath and Ruin”. Alfieri of a very American thrash metal, strengthened over time of veins Death metal never truly predominant but useful to give depth and threat to their sound, the Californian musicians have so far built a discography of excellent value. From the rough debuts of “War Without End”, up to the last, overwhelming, “Woe to the Vanquished” and “Weapons of Tomorrow”, it is difficult to find weaknesses in the band's work. This new chapter, in the sign of continuity, of reiterating the key concepts of one's being and hearing, without lateral glances or nostalgia of past eras, is not an exception.
The Warbringer thrash has stopped just enough, for a long time, compared to the lessons of Dark Angel, Testament, Exodus, Slayer, all formations from which, of course, they took inspiration, but which unlike (too many) other Thrash Metal realities have not become an evident and cumbersome call. Thus, dragged this time by the elaborate, chromed and cutting riffing of Chase Becker and Adam Carroll and by the possessed voice of John Kevill – for those who write the best thrash singer of the 2000s – the Warbringer inflame the spirits of every Thrasher who is self -respecting, giving birth to a handful of songs exactly in line with what is expected. If, in fact, the absence of something truly different from the usual can be a criticism from the most demanding, re -proposing one's favorite recipe with this lending quality, on our own, is a great feeling.
We start exactly from the same coordinates of “Weapons of Tomorrow”, transmitting even more urgently, hunger, pride if possible. In the latest works of the Warbringer, a scrambler Epos warrior had gone to grow, used in the context of their albums for a kind of musical representation of the distortions inherent in contemporary society, increasingly exasperated and exasperating, subject to more or less explicit tyrannies. A feeling of struggle and anger perfectly translated into a tracklist with non -existent compromises.
Over the years the expressive range has expanded, bringing to the songs some darker and damned Melodic Arabesque, a dark, tormented and evil breath at some moments, if not entire episodes. All this still makes itself felt in “Wrath and Ruin”, but remains a little in the background, compared to an incessant fury and a possessed riding towards destruction.
The opening entrusted to “The Sword and the Cross” is enough and advances in testifying the bloody, rigorous reliability of the group. A composite song, divided between Midtempo inclements, prolonged and expressive soloisms, the overflowing invectives of wild fury of Kevill, stanzas of battle anthem and thunder accelerations. The heart of the album instead seems to be crossed by still less calculation, leaning for a lightning approach, speed and clear tears, with few embroidery and an abundant, albeit in its refined way, use of the club. In traces such as “A Better World” and “Jackhammer” you pay attention to the point, but the quality of the riffing and the guitar interactions in the harmonies and soloists brings everything to another level, such as the battery work, of higher caliber both in the most unbridled assaults, and when it slows down and serves greater emphasis. In short, 'simple' songs of American thrash dirty with Death Metal, only written and played very well and produced with as much cure.
You don't even skim in Mosh and annihilate grooves, with commendable sense of balance and no excess. The love for arpeggiati in chiaroscuro, a pinch of bombastic atmosphere and flourish children of the classic metal returns to the surface in the melodies in their way pompous and rich in pathos of “through glasses, darkly”, slightly different from the bacchanal of violence appreciable in the other pieces. A canvas respected in the final brace “Cage of Air”-“The Last of Mankind”, with the soloists again to fury and give emphasis to flaming rhythmic plots, dense and splendidly dynamics. Heart, technique, character and competence never lack Warbringer, “Wrath and Ruin” is an high -sounding demonstration.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
