Warbringer - IV: Empires Collapse

Published November 26 2013

*=Staff's pick	Horizon The Turning Of The Gears One Dimension* Hunter-Seeker* Black Sun, Black Moon Scars Remain Dying Light Iron City* Leviathan Off With Their Heads! Tower Of The Serpent

Genre	Thrash Metal	John Kevill	Vocals
Tracks	11	John Laux	Guitar
Running time	42 Min.	Jeff Potts	Guitar
Label	Century Media	Ben Mottsman	Bass
Release	28 October 2013	Carlos Cruz	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboard
Producer	Steve Evetts
Similar artists	---

As the title announces, this is of course Los Angeles quintet Warbringer's fourth effort. This designated band chiefly offers rather fast, outright and hard thrash metal. It's one step from brutality, although some lead plays are even somewhat black metal oriented. They push the pedal to the floor in many songs to create a confident badass experience with occasional variation, indicated by a few heavier and slower tracks.

It's hard for me to find any total killer tracks and the last song, Tower Of The Serpent, is the only one I feel a bit uncomfortable with. Pretty much an album with songs on a solid level that makes my body move in a modest manner. Rather varied song One Dimension, where they hit everything rather accurate with string plays, melodies and vocals, together with speed monster Hunter-Seeker, that just blows my ears away, is what makes me pay the most attention. Iron City is also a cool song, where thoughts immediately head towards German thrash legends Tankard, both lyric and style wise.

I really want to love this record, but despite their persistent efforts to produce a thrash metal mega piece, I still miss something. It's definitely loaded with massive, steaming thrash elements, yet it really can't find a place in my heart. I mean, it's pretty all right and everything, just not over the edge and all my eager attempts seem to repel. It seems to be one of those records that I can't get the definite hang of, no matter how hard I try and therefore I just can't hand out more than 5 chalices to Empires Collapse.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
6	5	6	6	5

Summary
5 chalices of 10 - Tobbe