Review Summary: Oh Hell Yeah.
Texas has many things it is known for. The Alamo, Rattlesnakes, Austin 3:16, and of course
Pantera. Pantera became the savior of metal during the 90's, and in many ways influenced much of the metal we hear today. This review isn't about the cowboys from hell though, however, it's about a band that carries the same Texas metal spirit. Thus, we enter
Warbeast.
Krush the Enemy Is one hell of a good time. It has spine-crushing vocals, Technical yet thrashy guitar riffs, groovy base, and of course heavy drumming for days. Taking this album seriously was pretty difficult. Not because of anything extremely bad, but because of all the Head-banging that was happening. There in lies a few things that make this album feel a little off. The influence to
Pantera is a no-brainer. There are moments where it feels like its a little too influenced though. Warbeast however has taken the songs and fashioned towards being very fresh and vitalizing. In this way the most of the songs gain a separate feel, and contributes to not make all the songs sound like an over-influenced album, much like
Trivum's The Crusade was towards
Metallica.
If i had anything to say about lyrics, its would be that
Krush the Enemy Pretty much sums up a lot of lyrical material on the album. I don't see that as an overly negative thing. it works, it kicks ass and it takes no prisoners. Sometimes it does feel like
Krush the enemy could have a bit more than just, you know, krushing the enemy. Still, it over-all works, and the lyrics fit the band. Hence the ass-kicking.
Instrument wise, these guys can hold their own. The guitar riffs go from groove to thrash with ease, and the solos are pretty Monstrous. Just listen to
Born with a Blackened heart if you need more convincing. Openers like
Krush the enemy and
Unleashed draw you in and give you the feel for the album.
Scorched earth policy is a great example of where a good groove breakdown just works, and works all too well. The album never seems to slow down, nor does it tread far from the same style. In some ways
Krush the Enemy can feel slightly generic. That being said, as a whole,
War beast has done pretty well to change it up somewhat on many tracks. Listening to the Ending track,
We are the vultures, had an impact to compared in difference to tracks like
Guardian angel Helped see a consistency to make it feel a lot less generic.
In closing, gotta say it was awesome just being submerged in some great thrash metal. While points were made during the listen, once again, its too good to not thrash-out to. While it has a few small things with it that made the rating a bit less, They are minor and did not make the listening experience unenjoyable. Will This be listened to again after this review? Ohhhhh Hell yeah.
Recommended Tracks
Unleashed
Scorched Earth Policy
Born of with a Blackened Heart
We are the Vultures
