There they are, sighting down the barrels of guns behind their shades, festooned with leather, gauntlets, and chains, brandishing bellies and bad attitudes. Yes indeed, Denver’s Weapönizer have returned, and they mean business.
“What kind of business?”, you might ask, if you missed their debut album five years ago and couldn’t guess from their demeanor. We’re about to give you some of that mean business through our premiere of “Malefactor“, which is the opening blast from Weapönizer’s new album, the well-named Lawless Age, in advance of its late-June release by 20 Buck Spin.
According to the album’s advance press, it conjures memories of The Road Warrior and Escape From New York, as well as Deströyer 666, Venom, Korgull The Exterminator, Voivod, Midnight, Deathhammer, and early Slayer, melding elements from raw black metal to post-apocalyptic thrash to Aussie war metal to anarchic crossover. I quote those references because, as I hear the music, they’re entirely fitting. It does indeed eat up the pavement like a V8 Interceptor in the wasteland with the turbocharger wide open. You might also imagine a cocktail made of booze, gasoline, gunpowder, and busted teeth.
“Malefactor” toys with you for about 30 seconds, revving the Weapönizer engine, the drums tumbling and the guitar pulsing, and then the band give it the gas, and that big hot engine starts to rush, rip, and roar. The song punches the listener’s adrenal glands wide open with maniacal drum flurries, vicious riffing, starburst soloing, and gritty, red-eyed vocal ferocity, shifting gears along the way to an explosive finish that comes too soon.
Damned catchy stuff, too, and a blaringly obvious indication that Weapönizer know how to write a song that gets its hooks in as well as whipping your ass into mosh mode.
Lawless Age features cover art by Perturbator artist Ariel ZB, with additional art by Karl Dahmer and Sean McGrath. 20 Buck Spin will issue the album on LP, CD, and digital formats on June 30th. You can find physical preorders HERE, and digital/physical preorders alongside the streaming track “Hellbound” at Bandcamp HERE.
P.S. Weapönizer will be performing at the free (but invitation-only) Gathering of Shadows event somewhere in the Colorado Rockies, which begins today. Details about that are here.
Lawless Age Track List:
1. Malefactor
2. Hellbound
3. Vulture
4. Rattenkrieg
5. Lawless Age
6. Gangrene
7. Iron Clan Exiles
8. Temple Of The Iron Skull
9. World War 2 [English Dogs cover]
Weapönizer:
https://weaponizer.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/Weaponizer
20 Buck Spin:
http://www.20buckspin.com
http://listen.20buckspin.com
http://www.facebook.com/20buckspin
That cover. I like it.
I do too!
Doesn’t it remind you of a synthwave cover? I dig it too but it throws me off.
Hell yes! This shit rules!!
“Early Slayer”, indeed! Maybe a hint of Mercyless Death as well? I like it! 🙂