(written by Islander)
Metal fans who aren’t familiar with the Colombian band Warthrash should be forgiven for assuming their music is straight thrash. The pointer is right there in their name, shining like a beacon on an ocean cliff. But although this band from Medellín did sink their early roots in the traditions of thrash when they started more than 20 years ago, their music has evolved in more diverse directions. Newcomers might even get a powerful sense of that by gazing upon the dark and daunting artwork by Felipe Mora that shrouds their latest album.
That album, aptly titled No Light Shall Remain, will be released on June 19th by the band’s new label, the respected Awakening Records. It’s a great display of how varied the songwriting of Warthrash has become over time, and how powerfully their performances translate those varied interests into cohesive songs.
We’re very happy to bring you a full stream of the album today, preceded (of course!) by some of our own thoughts about what they’ve accomplished.
photo by David Gómez
To be clear, Warthrash didn’t cut through their thrash roots and cast them all away. This collection of 11 new songs includes a lot of fast-paced, pulse-pounding, head-hooking intensity. But, as previewed above, there’s more going on here, as the band have entwined those older roots with the influence of such death metal bands as Morbid Angel, Entombed, Dismember, and of course Death itself.
In a way, even the new album’s introductory track “No Light Shall Remain” foretells the role that darker and more dreadful influences will play in the songs to come. It’s an elegantly performed acoustic guitar instrumental with an ancient air and a mood that’s melancholy, haunting, and even desolate — a mesmerizing but unsettling experience.
It flows seamlessly into “Culebras Sin Honor“, and there you get an arresting sign of the band’s current musical identity. The drums violently hammer; the riffing violently twitches, writhes, and blares; the guttural vocals are monstrously deep and commanding, and they reverberate as if recorded in a crypt where ghouls are awakening.
The fretwork is impressively fleet-fingered, but it maniacally contorts in numerous directions as well as engaging in ravenous feeding frenzies. Even the soloing insanely shivers before ecstatically spiraling in piercing tones, and the dextrous drumwork adds to the music’s exhilarating effects by constantly changing speed and rhythmic patterns.
If that song doesn’t pop your eyes wide open, we’ll be surprised. The following songs should keep them open wide. “Sombras del Poder” surges with turbocharged speed, the riffing swarms like carnivorous insect hordes furiously competing over gutted corpses, interspersed by short blasts of victory, and the soloing is again both crazed and glorious.
By the fourth song, “Crucifixion“, it becomes even more clear that the maniacal riffs of Warthrash carry melodic hooks, and that their frenzied tirades are dynamic and structured. In other words, the blazing and blizzard-like riffs continually change and return. It further becomes even more clear that the band’s rhythm section are über-talented.
“Crucifixion” also includes a mood-changing interlude in which the music dismally crawls, and even the extended soloing sounds miserable and desperate; it seems to yearn for something hopeful (probably in vain).
photo by David Gómez
Other songs following “Crucifixion” also include moments of morbid gloom and cold oppressiveness, or feverish anguish. “Undefeated“, for example, includes a particularly miserable riff, tendrils of wailing melody, a soulfully grieving solo, and a dramatically majestic finale — all of which shove big spikes into a listener’s mind. It might be the album’s best song for those reasons, among others.
The vocals also occasionally explode from those blood-congealing roars into berserk howls, strangled snarls, or gagging grunts, but they’re always frightening. We should also re-emphasize how great the soloing is, not just because it’s remarkably fast and nimble (which it definitely often is) but because it’s melodically founded, nuanced, and thus capable of creating differing moods as well as amazement.
Come to think of it, it’s the many nuances in this album’s songs that are a big part of what makes the record so successful, even though its through-line of attacking intensity is undeniable.
And yes, the afore-mentioned variations in pace and mood usually occur in the midst of war-charges of head-spinning speed and ravenous voraciousness. In the main, the songs spectacularly channel the speed and intensity of big turbines capable of powering entire cities — and the derangement of fiends freed from their hellish chains (though this madness is instrumentally crafted by the band with surgical precision).
It really is a fantastic album, straight through to the heartbreaking and harrowing closer “Hollow Existence“, and one that should hold great appeal to all lovers of death/thrash. With that, we’ll leave you to it:
WARTHRASH is:
Caronte – Drums / Vocals
Nosferatu – Guitars
Silent – Bass
Merciless – Lead Guitar
No Light Shall Remain was recorded and mastered at Area 51 Studios in Medellín, Colombia. As noted above, it features artwork by Felipe Mora — and layout and design by Héctor Caronte.
Awakening Records will release the album on CD and digital formats, and it’s available for pre-order now:
PRE-ORDER:
https://awakeningrecordscn.bigcartel.com/
https://awakeningrecordscn.bandcamp.com/album/no-light-shall-remain
AWAKENING RECORDS:
https://facebook.com/AwakeningRecordsCN
https://instagram.com/awakeningrecordscn/
WARTHRASH:
https://www.facebook.com/WarthrashColombiaOficial
https://www.instagram.com/warthrash