• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

It's been almost 5 years since Warbringer graced us with a new slab of their modern thrash, so this is a little overdue. We've been flooded with old-school thrash albums in recent years—not that I'm complaining—so it's refreshing to hear something different. Modern thrash is sometimes more like metalcore-ish garbage and highly disposable, but Warbringer is one of the bands that does the genre right, and that's still true on Wrath and Ruin. The harsh but decipherable vocals are once again kind of prominent, albeit without overshadowing the music, and are a staple of the band. The music is fast and clean, precise thrash, no surprise here from these Californians, who have been pretty consistent throughout their career. Some of the riffage is a little on the raw side, which makes the music more aggressive and incisive, the kind of stuff you'll be hard-pressed to resist dusting off your air guitar. The whole time I was either headbanging, head-bobbing, air-guitaring, or a combination of those. This might be cleaner thrash that we've been flooded with in recent years, but Wrath and Ruin is filled with quality, catchy thrash that calls for repeat listens.

As a side note, there is a 2 CD and the digital edition that contains a ton of live tracks (bringing the running time to a few minutes under two hours) recorded in Hungary, France, Poland and Germany, the majority and Budapest, and those are really high-quality live recordings that really bring the live Warbringer experience to your home. I'm usually not big on extras like this, but this is one exception where I can actually recommend the special edition.