With the release of their debut album last year, Warbringer blitzed upon the scene, quickly pushing their way to the front of the thrash revival band pack.
War Without End received a lot of praise, and was named one of the best CDs of 2008 by this site and many others.
Sophomore albums are tricky. They can continue the momentum of a band's debut and show progression and improvement, or can go completely off the rails, relegating an artist to flash in the pan status. Thankfully,
Waking Into Nightmares falls into that first category. With several tours now under their belt, Warbringer has really honed their craft.
Waking Into Nightmares features raw, intense and fast thrash metal. But instead of playing at maximum speed all the time, Warbringer dials it back a notch periodically, adding some variety. Tracks like "Scorched Earth" and "Abandoned By Time" are fast and furious, but include slightly slower and groovier sections. "Prey For Death" slows things down even more, but the intensity never wanes.
"Nightmare Anatomy" is an instrumental that begins with a lot of progressive influences and is pretty mellow before getting more intense in the middle and then easing up at the end. It doesn't have the complexity and chops of a Metallica instrumental, but it's a nice change of pace.
Vocalist John Kevill has refined his style on Waking Into Nightmares as well. His angry yells are no less fierce, but he's sharper and more precise, as are the rest of Warbringer.
Excellent guitarists are mandatory for quality thrash, and John Laux and Adam Carroll fit the bill. Tight riffs and blazing solos propel Warbringer's music. And this time around Gary Holt from Exodus, who knows a thing or two about thrash guitars, produces. It's only fitting that one of the founding fathers of thrash is there to help pass the torch to Warbringer, who will ensure a bright future for the genre.
(released May 19, 2009 on Century Media Records)
