Review; Warbeast - Destroy

Track Listing:

1. Cryogenic Thawout
2. Nightmare In The Sky
3. Egotistical Bastard
4. Nobody
5. The Day Of...
6. Warbeast
7. Blood Moon
8. War Of The Worlds
9. Destroy
10. Nameless


I'd heard a whole lot about Warbeast from reading various interviews with Down frontman and Housecore Records figurehead Phil Anselmo, who relentlessly champions the band with very high praises. Anselmo also took on the task of producing the album just as he had with the band's debut 'Krush The Enemy' album. Since then the whole band has decided to step up a notch and bring everything to the next level, with a new bassist and guitarist in tow. Whilst I cannot comment on any comparison between 'Destroy' and the first album, having not heard it, I can say that the new album is a crusher in its own right.

The album's main strengths come in the form of riffs and pulverising drum work, as shown from intro track 'Cryogenic Thawout', which showcases some Texan swagger and huge Thrash Metal riffs to set the tone nicely for the album as a whole. As soon as 'Nightmare In The Sky' drops the band goes to Mach 3 and stays that way for pretty much the whole album. The vocals spit out with some old-school Thrash spirit and every guitar solo goes straight for the neck with technical proficiency.

'Egotistical Maniac' has a great sarcastic vocal delivery that is bound to go down well with boozed up festival crowds in the summer, but also boasts one hell of an instrumental refrain that is sure-fired circle-pit material. 'Nobody' is a stomping-anthem that is bound to make any listener feel like a hard-ass with a lot of fuck you attitude. As far as Thrash Metal goes, it doesn't get much more fun and dumbed up than this, but it doesn't make the mistake of feeling silly too often as other bands like Municipal Waste do.

Through the record, the lyrical content is typical Thrash Metal fair; trash talking, alien warfare, robotic monsters, and general havoc, but it is the pace and quality of the music and the fact that the album is full of fun metal moments. These guys clearly don't take lyrics too seriously, and with musical chops as good as what they show on this album they can afford to for now. If there's one thing that lets the album down is a lack of variety; the speed is more than impressive, but the songs are each the same as the one before it. There's not much on the album that hasn't been heard from other Thrash bands before them, but the delivery feels more genuine than most modern 'Neo-Thrash'  bands I've heard recently. A decent album, not really original enough to get overtly excited about, but certainly good enough Thrash to listen to when the mood takes you.

Rating: 7/10