Warpath
Bullets for a Desert Session

“The brilliant and long-awaited comeback of the German thrash legends Warpath from Hamburg!” says the press sheet that accompanies this release. Well, the only thing in that quote that isn’t alternative facts is Warpath from Hamburg – the rest is bogus. I read several reviews not mentioning long-awaited and I haven’t awaited a comeback by these guys either. Brilliant seems to be unmentioned in all reviews I have read about this album and I only mention it because it was written in the press sheet. And German thrash legends is also rather preposterous considering that many probably haven’t even heard about them, I know I haven’t – but then again I have not researched German thrash metal even though I know about legends like Kreator and Destructions to name just two.

And musically it feels like they have been in a coma for twenty years and believes it is 1997 or something, this does not feel like something written and produced today. It feels rather dated. Sure the production is good and the singer is brutally making noises like most singers in this genre do. But their thrash-/death-/doom metal combination does not really make you stop and take notice; it is like the bullets they brought to the desert sessions were blanks. It feels rather predictable and they don’t really offer anything noteworthy on an album that is also long with over fifty minutes of playing time when you discount the two digipak bonus tracks that adds ten more minutes to the album.

It is an album where you just wait for the end to come, and it never really comes soon enough. It is heavy and all of that but the songs are kind of boring and don’t really feel very thought out. It is like they don’t set up sneak attacks and come at you from unexpected angles where your defence is down. No, it is more like a full frontal assault that is rather easy to steer away and in the end I find myself happy to write away this album and move on, as it hasn’t offered much. Not even when they claim that God is dead I raise an eyebrow and that is after all the least forgetful track on this fairly forgettable album.

Sure, if you are a fan and have waited twenty years for this comeback you might like what you hear but most of will feel that these “legends” don’t have anything to offer. And now that I am done I throw away the disk like a Frisbee into the nearest garbage bin where it can share space with bags of dog crap and old chewing gums. I think you can spend money much more wiser than on this album, like giving something to charity – that would certainly give you a lot more than buying this album.

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