Review Summary: SWING THE HAMMER AWAYYYYY
It hurts my bones a bit to realize that we are almost with the same distance now as we were from thrash metal’s heyday during the great revival that took place in the 2000’s. I can’t say that I have kept up with the scene all that much since the likes of Toxic Holocaust or Municipal Waste were making waves, but I can say that Warbringer has remained one of the lone bands worth checking in on over the years. Ever since they debuted with what I would consider now to be a classic of the revival period in
War Without End, the band have rattled off remarkably strong work with a level of consistency that has gone a tad underappreciated in the wider scope of metal canon, especially considering a good deal of the genre has a short shelf life and, as such, has aged like milk*.
*
Look up the I-can’t-believe-they-actually-recorded-this lyrics for “Children of a Worthless God” by Exodus for a nice window into George Dubya-era jingoism that high school Dakota did not read, ruining what would otherwise be a pretty sick riff.
Wrath and Ruin is no different and extends the streak further. The elevator pitch here could certainly be that this is indeed the band’s “most mature” yet -and it is- but that’s a pretty silly accolade to laud a thrash band for. Make no mistake, the scope of some of the longer tracks (“The Sword and the Cross”,”Cage of Air”) are far grander than what the band would have attempted in their formative years, having a sense of musical progression that teases out the drama a bit with, dare I say,
good lyrics about fighting the doldrums of late stage capitalism and The Man, but the band never lose sight of wanting to make you band your head and get in the pit -and I do! “A Better World” is a righteous battlecry that rattles off one violent riff after another while also making me laugh my ass off as John Kevill barks about how much high screentime and needing to take prescription pills sucks. A lesser band would succumb to the eyerolling nature of “phone bad,” but the song rips so hard that I can’t help but give in to the theatrics. “Neuromancer” strikes gold by temporarily dialing back the tempo in favor of a ridiculously thicc low-end groove that serves as a nice palette-cleanser. “The Jackhammer” is, if nothing else, worth it purely for the bloodcurling command in the bridge: “SWING THE HAMMER AWAYYYYY.” “Through a Glass, Darkly” is, bare with me, extremely convincing Agalloch worship from the most unlikely of sources. They got range.
Wrath and Ruin is a ridiculously fun time, only held back by the conventions of the genre that Warbringer performs so well. Some of the songs go on a tad too long and the prospect of taking in an entire thrash album is just a bit more difficult in my thirties than it was in high school, but that’s more on me than it is on them. For anyone looking to don a denim vest and throw up the horns,
Wrath and Ruin has the goods.
