Saturday, October 14, 2017

Warcall - Invaders





Label: Plan B Music



There's something about three piece rock trios. It just seems that they don't often go wrong or at least, just tour forever until everyone has either heard them or at least heard of them. Main case in point, Motorhead. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who has dug their teeth into rock music that hadn't heard of Lemmy's group. Canadian power trio Warcall definitely come from the same school of thought. While their PR sheet states that the album opener, "Mission Commando" is about the start of a war. It includes the lyrics, "Go hard or go home" which could also be about a persevering metal band and their life on the road. The song itself quickly gets your attention as the tune is speedy, dirty and raw metal harking back to the early days of thrash metal taking more than a twist of Motorhead bass coupled fast pounding drums, speedy guitar riffs and raspy and gruff sandpaper to skin vocals.





"Riding with Zombies" is apparently about touring life and start off a little slower but the tempo changes to full tilt ahead again. The drums are hammered so strongly at the start of "Bully Bastards" that it's impossible not to have sympathy for the poor drumkit as it's likely to have a few visits to accident and emergency clinics in its lifetime. The rhythm section is strong in this one. Compared to what has gone before, "Mass Extinction" belies its subject matter as it nearly sounds like a happy mid-tempo tune but with those gruff raspy vocals layered on top. If you're after noisy as hell, you can relax because Warcall haven't abandoned their dirty and raw core. The vocals on "The Man who Suffers" are very much of the hoarse variation and they will have some listeners wondering if the song title is about the vocalist himself (it's not). There are some great guitar traditional metal guitar leads in this track which also takes the grimiest of thrash into its montage as does "Fight Back", which also includes some great basslines.




The raw dirty noise that Warcall create on their "Invaders" album should appeal to fans of Motorhead, Tank , the rawer Celtic Frost, recent Darkthrone and fans of early thrash metal.


3.5/5

Release Date: 13 October 2017


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Thursday, October 12, 2017

Wheelfall - The Atrocity Reports




Apathia records


"The Atrocity Reports" is the third album from French band, Wheelfall. The band's music on their PR sheet is described as Industrial Post-Metal. What is industrial Post Metal? How does it differ from Industrial Metal? Why so many questions? Who cares?

The band sound a little like 90's Ministry on the album opener, "The Way to Every Crime is Ours". It's heavy, metallic and very much rhythm driven with a driven tempo. The nihilism is strong throughout the album and the second song "Nothing But Worms" reeks of despair as the title. The tempo is much slower and the vocals go from between death metal and hardcore at the start of the song to near spoken which sets a bleak haunting tone. "Violence is Seduction" is an angry industrial metal three minute and a half minute burst that will have shouting, "It's a guilt fucker".




"Impentinent" has a similar drum sound to Big Black's "Kerosene" which sets the song on fire. It sounds like Big Black, Ministry and Nailbomb combined and contained to single place, in that it is industrial and very pissed off with society. "There is No You" is lighter than most the previous tracks and is reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails although Wheelfall do sound much angrier and a little less interested in catchy sing-a-long hooks.



Wheelfall really know how to turn on the angrybutton and are much accessible than most modern hardcore punk bands while providing abrasive industrial metal. If you enjoy Ministry, Nailbomb, Big Black, "Demanufacture" era Fear Factory or Nine Inch Nails then Wheelfall's "The Atrocity Reports" album should be right up your alley.


3.5/5

Release Date: 6 October 2017


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Beastwars - IV

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