Review Summary: A fun but flawed history lesson
Warkings are a new band to me. They are the new mystery new of metal (mostly).
The band consists of a Roman Tribune on vocals (vocalist from Serenity), The Crusader on guitar, The Viking on bass, and finally The Spartan on drums. Revenge is their second album. Warkings are a power metal (is the a sub genre for history metal, it probably should be at this rate!) band in a similar vein as Sabaton.
The vocals are good, if you listen to Serenity you will know what to expect. Straightforward clean vocals, no stratosphere level screams here. There are some occasional harsh backing vocals. Plus 2 tracks featuring the Queen of the Damned (aka Melissa Bonny) lending some great lead harsh vocals to Odin's Sons and bonus track Sparta (a rerecorded song from the first album).
The guitar work is probably the highlight of the album for me. Very catchy riffs on most songs, particularly on the song Warriors. Where the guitar comes into its own however is the solos. There are a couple songs on the album that didn't click with me, but the solos really make it worth not skipping the track on the next listen - Fight in the Shade being a good example here. However a head scratching moment is on the Amon Amarth playing power metal song Odin's Sons, which has no solo. If this song had a solo, it would probably be my favourite song on the album!
The rhythm section of the drum and bass does its job but for me there were no standout moments e.g. epic drum fills or solos that caught my attention.
Now onto my main issue with this album: the lyrics. The band seem to be all about the image as they dress up as the respective characters in music videos and live performances with the masks to hide the identity. This itself is not an issue as I enjoy bands like Ghost, Slipknot, Lordi etc. The way this ties with my criticism of the lyrics is they aren't deep or specific enough in most cases. They are very generic e.g. battles, glory, stand together. For me if the lyrics were in the direction of Sabaton, Amon Amarth or even Iron Maiden where the lyrics are telling a detailed story, this album would be fantastic! For example the song Freedom - about William Wallace of Scotland could be about anything! "Hold the line - no retreat." This is unfortunately a common problem for most of the songs here, the worst offenders being Banners High and Warking. Not helped either by the choice of a slower plodding pace, at least if the lyrics were engaging it would be a little engaging. For me lyrically the best song is Battle of Marathon which did conjure those images of an epic battle.
This is not however a bad album. If you don't mind about the generic lyrics and just want some fun power metal this album is for you. If you want a listen with a bit more depth and substance then it's probably worth listening to something else.
Songs to check out: Warriors, Odin's Sons, Battle of Marathon, Sparta (bonus track)
