WARBRINGER: War Without End

Produced by Bill Metoyer

Released: Tomorrow

Half the guys in this band weren't even born when Kreator released Pleasure to Kill but obviously their parents and/or older siblings made sure they spent plenty of time listening to it. Warbringer may have only formed in 2004 but on War Without End they could just as easily have come from mid-80s Essen via San Francisco.

Fiendishly relentless for most of its 40 minute length, War Without End is pure and simple old school thrash and shows that Warbringer has precisely zero pretentions to be anything else. Only the distinctly modern production sets this apart from the thrash metal classics that are this band's major influences, and who better to help them perfect this sound than BIll Metoyer, whose list of credits include production and engineering duties with Slayer, Sacred Reich, Atrophy, DRI and literally dozens of others. The playing is ridiculously energetic, the guitars are crunchy and heavy and the vocals are an urgent, tuneless shouting; when John Kevill isn't channelling Mille Petrozza he's doing Tom Araya instead. Behind the ripping chaos of the incredibly catchy, headbangingly good riffs Ryan Bates lays down some deceptively technical drumming that really does hold everything together in a pretty remarkable fashion.

While it is true that the shadows of Kreator and Slayer loom large over every move this band makes, it would be a mistake to assume that Warbringer doesn't have ideas of their own, even if part of "Systematic Genocide" sounds exactly like "Angel of Death". Rather than just simply ripping off the greats, these guys mix up their influences and add a singularly darker element that is in tune with the warlike themes of every single one of their songs. It isn't totally original of course, but it is certainly inspired.

No review of this album would be complete without mentioning one other factor that really makes them stand out. Warbringer's material is simply drenched in the blazing lead guitar work of John Laux and Adam Carroll, who combine furious shredding with spectacular melodic sections in the extended solos and add in machine-gun like spitfire fills and splats elsewhere. This is truly glorious stuff.

Warbringer is emerging as the thrash revival begins to roll around the world and War Without End should see them way out in front of the oncoming stampede.

1. Total War


2. Systematic 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


11. A Dead Current (unlisted)

Rating: 72%