Album Review: Warbringer - Wrath And Ruin
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
There were a lot of incredible bands that emerged from the new wave of thrash metal movement in the 2000’s but one of the most consistent and bludgeoning is California five piece Warbringer who with their seventh album “Wrath And Ruin” remind us just how potent a force that thrash metal is nearly 45 years on from its origins in the early 1980’s. The band have been on an incredible run with 2017’s “Woe To The Vanquished” and 2020’s “Weapons Of Tomorrow” being the best material the band had released to date and that pattern continues with “Wrath And Ruin” which slays on pretty much every level.
Warbringer have had a greater intensity and velocity to their sound than a lot of their counterparts with dabblings into blackened thrash as well as just unleashing a full throttle thrash assault. The full on thrash assault can very much be heard with songs such as ‘Strike From The Sky’ and the aptly titled ‘The Jackhammer’ ensuring that heads are very much going to be crushed but there is a high degree of musicality and technicality lurking in these songs with a great degree of melody and complexity running through songs such as ‘The Sword And The Cross’ and ‘A Better World’. Warbringer have had a greater intensity and velocity to their sound than a lot of their counterparts with dabblings into blackened thrash as well as just unleashing a full throttle thrash assault. The full on thrash assault can very much be heard with songs such as ‘Strike From The Sky’ and the aptly titled ‘The Jackhammer’ ensuring that heads are very much going to be crushed but there is a high degree of musicality and technicality lurking in these songs with a great degree of melody and complexity running through songs such as ‘The Sword And The Cross’ and ‘A Better World’. Another weapon unleashed from the Warbringer arsenal is a darker more atmospheric take on thrash that can be heard in ‘Through A Glass, Darkly’ and the epic closing duo of ‘Cage Of Air’ which veers into blackened thrash at times and the dramatic finale of ‘The Last Of My Kind’ which veers into melodic death metal riffing. This ensures that the eight songs which make up “Wrath And Ruin” are varied enough to really engage the listener but also provide that thrash attack that makes Warbringer who they are.
It is safe to say that the band are on absolute fire on “Wrath And Ruin” with breathtaking performances all round from the guitar attack of Adam Carroll and Chase Becker, the thunderous bass of Chase Bryant and the snarling vocal attack of John Kevill but special mention has to go to drummer Carlos Cruz who has to be one of the finest drummers in thrash metal. The album also sounds phenomenal with a production by Mark Lewis (Cannibal Corpse, Trivium, The Black Dahlia Murder), and mastering by Justin Shturtz at Sterling Sound (Testament, Sepultura, Machine Head).
Thrash will always be my go to style of metal but I can recognise that the genre is very saturated and a good deal of thrash can be samey and safe sounding but Warbringer absolutely excel here and “Wrath And Ruin” is a timely reminder why thrash is my favourite subgenre of metal. Warbringer bring some other elements into the mix but thrash your face off at the same time. An album that is intricate, melodic and astonishingly violent, “Wrath And Ruin” might just be the must-hear thrash metal record of 2025.
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