Destroy. Pretty self-explanatory here folks. That is what this entire album does for nine straight tracks; destroy everything in its path. Warbeast have undergone a few line-up changes since their formation, but the core has been together since the beginning in ’08. The addition of guitarist Bobby Tillotson in 2010 made that care even stronger. (The band currently uses a touring bassist. I don’t get to ask so I can’t tell.) Anyway, the music on this album is very thrash inspired, but it’s not just “thrash”. This album just destroys everything (Yup, I went there).
Opening an album with two and a half minute instrumental is pretty ballsy for a thrash album. Warbeast do it perfectly. Honestly now, when have you heard “instrumental” and “thrash” in a sentence without seeing “Metallica” mixed in there? Moving on to the first proper track ‘Nightmares in the Sky’, the familiar voice of Bruce Corbitt (ex-Rigor Mortis, although I’ve heard the “ex” might not belong there as of last year) is perfect with the music. His “rough but sometimes soaring and still rough” vocals are great. And what can I say about the music, well, LOOK AT THE TITLE OF THE ALBUM!!!!! I know this doesn’t always apply, hell, it rarely applies. But this time it does. The drumming is relentless, the guitars are nuts. They know one thing and that is to simply shred like a mother fucker. The tone is great, and there is even audible bass. A lot of records just drown the bass in the mix, Warbeast keep it in with the entire onslaught.
‘Egotistical Bastard’ is an attack on those people you just can’t stand, who have their nose in the air. And that attack is brought with a nice drumbeat and an opening verse of sucker punch guitars. The rest continues with soaring leads built on top of rock solid rhythm playing. ‘Warbeast’ (yeah they went there) is groove based, but very up tempo at the same time. Verses have a beat that will move your head and the chorus will move your body. ‘War of the World’ starts out slow, with a southern vibe to it and enough guitar squeals to keep you fed for a week or longer. It moves right along with the “groove in my thrash” practice. And that’s missing from a lot of records out there. You can play as fast and as loud as you want, but if the songs don’t cause feet or hands tapping, you didn’t do it right.
Closing out the album with the title track, Warbeast have saved the best for last. Everything on this song is over the top. Vocals pushed to the max, guitar solos and rhythms burning up strings, bass and drums knocking down foundations. And when you get to the halfway mark, you are educated in the proper way to do a breakdown. This essentially continues until the albums done, and your bones are shaking.
It’s a shame that great music nowadays won’t get a lot of the recognition it deserves due to an overcrowded market full of copy and paste bullshit. Warbeast shine above a lot of the music I’ve heard in the past few years, and they deserve your support. Go get this album through Season of Mist on April 12th in Europe and through Housecore Records right now in the US. It comes on CD (with bonus track on the Euro version) and special edition red LP. Support this band, go out and grab this album!!
HAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
