Rough Edge: Warpath CD Reviews

WARPATH

"Damnation" (Self-produced; 2008)

Reviewed by Metal Mark

While Germany and the United States had thrash bands pouring out all over the place twenty years ago there were never a whole lot of thrash bands coming out of the UK. You had Onslaught and Sabbat and a few smaller name acts, but not a huge amount even though there seemed to be a fan base for it because thrash bands from other countries played there. Anyway, now with the thrash resurgence we are seeing more thrash acts coming from the U.K., such as Evile, Gama Bomb and now Warpath.

Many of the newer thrash bands have looked to Slayer, the Bay Area scene (Metallica, Exodus and others) the German thrash scene (Kreator/Sodom/Destruction) and other places ... or a combination of two or more of those sounds for influences. Yet it takes about a minute into the opener here (which is the title track) to realize that Warpath's prime musical influence is Megadeth, primarily the "Peace Sells" and "Rust in Peace" eras. Like Megadeth on those albums, Warpath relies on a similar style of finger bending and slightly odd-paced riffs. The vocals are far more standard as no one has ever been able, or really tried, to sing like Dave Mustaine. There are also some shades of peak Slayer mixed in here and there as well.

Warpath relies on the opening riffs and that works wonders, but they don't always do enough into the song to really keep the momentum rolling. It's not a lack of energy as much as it is that they need to work on the songwriting a little and bring some more ideas into the fold. Those killer, slightly crazy whirling riffs are at the beginning of every song but the band just needs to keep fleshing out more ideas.

One thing that they have no trouble in doing is being very heavy and this is in large part due to having an above average rhythm section. Even if not every song is going to grab you, their spine-rattling, pounding heaviness made enough of an impression on me. I can't tell you how many times I have pulled out an album from the 80s by some thrash band I once liked only to realize that they have not aged well largely due to the fact that they were just not that heavy. So I think having that strong background going is really likely to help Warpath get some notice and they just need to work around it and keep building in other areas. They have certainly done enough establish a very firm foundation and seem to be on the right track.

For more information, check out http://www.myspace.com/warpathuk.

Rating Guide:

A classic. This record will kick your ass.

Killer. Not a classic but it will rock your world.

So-so. You've heard better.

Pretty bad. Might make a nice coaster.

Self explanatory. Just the sight of the cover makes you wanna hurl.

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