Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Warbringer
Label: Century Media
Release: 2008
Thrash metal is enjoying a boom the likes of which it hasn’t seen since the golden eighties, and a whole pack of legends back in action proves it. Exodus just dropped a solid record, Megadeth did too, Metallica are promising a return to their roots with the new one (haven’t we heard that one before…), Testament will release a new studio album after almost ten years, Heathen are waking up, Lääz Rockit are mixing a new release, Forbidden are out on a long-awaited reunion tour, and we could go on. But it’s not just the veterans carrying the revived thrash scene. A nice crop of young, new bands rounds it out superbly. They were still sitting in their own crap when thrash metal first rose to fame, yet plenty of them can easily stand up against any “old-school” name. Toxic Holocaust, Evile, Fueled By Fire, Municipal Waste are just a few, and last but not least there are the new hopefuls from Los Angeles, Warbringer.
With their debut War Without End, released on Century Media, Warbringer bring exactly that: merciless war, total destruction, riff massacres, psychopathic thrash vocals and pure nostalgia for the beginnings of thrash metal. Thrash is so popular right now that labels are snapping up any band that even vaguely smells like thrash, which can be a double-edged sword. Still, even though Warbringer aren’t reinventing the wheel, they deliver a record that outclasses most new-school thrash outfits. These guys nailed the perfect blend of Teutonic and Bay Area thrash on their debut, even though when the veterans’ first albums came out they weren’t even a twinkle in anyone’s eye, since the band members are only between 17 and 22 years old. Warbringer listened to the classics to death like proper, “true” thrashers, and you can really hear that plenty of lines stuck in their heads like homework. You get everything from “Kreator meets Slayer” riffs, to slick Mustaine-style solos, to wild Kerry King “whammy bar” dissonant bits, to Gary Holt’s melodic tremolo solos. But Warbringer play what they play with so much passion and youthful energy that, originality not being quite perfect, listening to War Without End is still a real “headbanger’s paradise”. One of the best vocalists of the new thrash school, John Kevill, adds a special charm to the album. He sounds like a mutant mix of young psycho Miland Petrozza (Kreator), angel of death Tom Araya (Slayer) and mental patient Paul Baloff (Exodus). Warbringer couldn’t have dreamed up a more perfect vocalist, especially after Kevill rips you a new one with the agonized screams in the chorus of the opening track: “TOTAAAAL WAAAAAAR!”… and there are plenty of vocal moments like that. And when the guys throw in gang vocals in the style of Anthrax, the cup runneth over. Forget newer bands like Shadows Fall or Killswitch Engage, who consider themselves modern thrash. Warbringer are the prototype of the new thrash, played in the old-school manner. The album’s producer, the legendary Bill Metoyer, who has worked with bands like Slayer, Flotsam and Jetsam, D.R.I., Helstar, Dark Angel, Sacred Reich and so on, surely had a hand in that too. Musically, War Without End is a real storm of war, since you can barely find a mid-tempo moment, just breakneck thrash anthems that run you over without mercy like the tank treads on the cover. The album’s themes are also entirely devoted to war, from the hopeless clash of total war to the hidden terror of submarines in Beneath the Waves, with an outstanding gang shout of “SHARK ATTACK!” in the middle of the track (which shamelessly recalls the Negligence song Shark Attack, but never mind). Every now and then they toss in a hackneyed line along the lines of “shoot to kill” or “no remorse”, but war themes are clearly tailor-made for Kevill, who sounds like a deranged general screaming orders in the middle of the battlefield. The rhythm section mostly stays in gray mediocrity, but guitarists Laux/Carroll save the day with a varied arsenal of riffs and fantastic thrashy solos. Smack!
Even though Warbringer aren’t starting a revolution in the thrash genre with War Without End and don’t bring any major novelties, since they mostly stay in the waters of proper “old-school” thrash, their debut is pure thrash enjoyment. They’re fresh enough instrumentally and vocally that you can’t say they’re copying their idols, and in this energetic, hard-hitting, raw thrash it’s mainly adrenaline and youthful energy that drive them. Warbringer (and bands like them) are the very definition of the saying “Thrash ’till Death!!!”, and War Without End is a must-have addition to the collection of every true-believer thrasher.
Lineup
John Kevill – vocals
John Laux – guitar
Andy Laux – bass guitar
Ryan Bates – drums
Adam Carroll – guitar
Production
Bill Metoyer
Track list
1. Total War
2. Systemtic Genocide
3. Dread Command
4. Hell on Earth
5. At the Crack of Doom
6. Beneath the Waves
7. Instruments of Torture
8. Shoot to Kill
9. Born of the Ruins
10. Combat Shock
