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Album Review

Warbringer-War Without End
(Century Media, 2008)

I'm sure few metal fans would disagree that there has been a rise in the number of bands playing thrash metal recently. While some bands do come across as a bit bland, it is a band like Warbringer that makes you glad that thrash is back. With a sound akin to Kill Em All era Metallica meets Bonded by Blood era Exodus, Warbringer is an aggressive beast armed with muscled yet memorable riffs and a vicious energetic edge.

While the members of Warbringer might be young, their approach is certainly polished and destructive. They maintain a perfect balance between clean playing and the break neck speed thrash is known for. The vocals have a harsher edge and the band uses blast beats on occasion, but at the end of the day this is pure old school thrash.

The production is razor sharp, energetic and very much old school in nature. Bill Metoyer, who has worked with Slayer, Dark Angel and DRI, is no stranger to thrash and it certainly shows. What I really like about the album is that it doesnt sound like it has been ruined by being a studio effort. The energy levels are still very high. The drum performance isnt quite perfect and that is such a breath of fresh air right now with drums typically being triggered to the point of sounding like drum machines. This is a natural and very human sounding performance that fits perfectly with the bands old school thrash attack.

The sonic blitzkrieg of Warbringer is sure to please old school fans as well as those of you new to the genre. Imagine Municipal Waste drawing more from Possessed with the DRI influence still present. Then add in Metallica and Exodus and you'd basically have Warbringer.

 

 
 


UN: War Without End is one hell of a debut album. Are you guys pleased with how the album turned out? How has the reception been so far? Are you chomping at the bit for February 5th for the album to hit store shelves?
Andy: We are very pleased! We got to rerecord 5 tracks from the EP and introduce five brand new ones which is great because we in Warbringer all feel that each new song we write was better than the last so you get to hear the latest and greates but also we feel that we did justice to the tracks on the EP with improved solos and timing so really you get the best of both worlds on the new album. We've already had tons of feedback from people who got the album early and the response has been great! We're definitely anxious to find out how the greater metal community will respond.
UN: During the writing process do a lot of riffs get thrown out for sounding more modern? Is it safe to assume that you don't want to reach very far out from the thrash genre with Warbringer?
Andy: Nothing that we write is on accident, it's not like the riffs that we come up with are unintentional so theres not really any junk we have to sort out, only awsome material and less awsome material. Being the thrash band that we are, even if we did have more "modern" riffs (which we do) they get so embellished in the thrash sound that people wouldn't notice anyways; and when i say "modern" I'm obviously not talking about any metalcore or nu metal, just good metal in general that has been put out in the past 5 or 6 years. As for your second question theres actually healthy amounts of old school death metal, black, and traditional metal in our music but like i said before, we're so blatantly thrash that everything just sounds like "black thrash" or "death thrash" etc.
UN: Does the ages of the members hamper the band in anyway? For instance does it get in the way of touring or possibly playing 21+ shows? Are you guys committed to the band full time?
Andy: We've never been denied a gig based on our ages but i can remember one time when we drove all the way out to bum-fucking nowhere to play some bar and those of us under 21 all had to sit out in the cold before and after we played, that sucked. Warbringer has definitely been a full time gig especially since we got signed and now even more with the album release and the tour.
UN: Do you feel like the band has progressed since the One by One the Wicked Fall EP? Is the album a better example of what you guys want the band to sound like?
Andy: The EP was put together over the course of two days so in a technical sense the album is a quantum leap forward but i also feel that the new material that's been written since the EP represents us really coming into our own. It is a better example of what we want the band to sound like.
UN: What was it like working with Bill Metoyer? He's worked with some of the best bands thrash has to offer so recording a band like Warbringer must have been right up his alley. Did you guys shoot the shit about any of the classic bands he has worked with?
Andy: Working with bill was great. The dude knew exactly what he was doing and considering he didn't play any insturments i was really impressed with how much he knew about guitars and drums but I guess thats why he a pro. Personally i thought the best part about working with Bill was just knowing that my band's sound was in good hands and there was 0% chance of the album getting fucked up. There was a bit of a situation when his computer's hard drive nearly erased everything but we managed to get that under control. We didn't really talk much about the other bands he worked with except in the context of how their albums sound and what we liked production wise.
UN: Would you say it was a conscious decision to have a more natural sounding album? Too many bands rely on studio polish and end up sounding like a product more so than a piece of music.
Andy: The "natural" sound we got on are album was all Bill's doing, and you're right, too many band's these day have these ultra polished protools albums that sound totally mechanical. To start with we told Bill that we didn't want heavily triggered drums and we didn't want to have a technically perfect recording but thats all, everything else he did on his own.
UN: Do you remember what the first thrash song you heard was? Would you consider yourself an addict of the genre?
Andy: I didn't know thrash from regular metal at the time but it was Whiplash off Kill 'em All when i was like 11 years old. I'm not sure if I'd call my self an addict but through all the different kinds of music i listen to, I always come back for more thrash!
UN: Why thrash metal? Is it the energy and the speed? While death metal might be faster it just doesn't have the same intensity as thrash metal.
Andy: I think thrash is just the best of so many worlds, it rocks like nwobhm, it can be as violent as death metal, it can shred like speed metal, and yea it just sounds fucking fast.
UN: Would you agree that thrash is having a bit of a revival right now? There seems to be new bands popping up playing thrash more regularly right now. I'll take more thrash bands over more metalcore bands any day.
Andy: Definitely. The whole thing is only just starting to take off, most underground bands like ourselves only have one realse so far so theres no telling what the coming months/ years will bring.
UN: What would a dream tour for Warbringer be? Have you had the chance to play with any of the classic or reunited thrash bands yet?
Andy: I just hope people look back and consider Warbringer and important contributer to the thrash metal genre. So far we've only had a chance to play with Exodus and that has been awsome but theres much more on the way including Wacken this summer.
UN: Was it important to have an album cover that resembles the classics of the genre? I could definitely see it fitting nicely in a vinyl collection next to Overkill and Nuclear Assault. Just out of curiosity is the album being released on vinyl?
Andy: Yea, in a sense it is important to have a "thrash" cover. Idealy you want a thrash fan to spot your album when they see it in a store and immediately identify with it. Same goes with the logo, you want to attract the right people. I don't care if things like artwork and layout are "typical" or "generic" because when it comes down to it those things are just advertisement, the real substance is in the music.

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