Kickass Thrash That Pulls No Punches
Warbeast continues to leave fans in awe of their abilities with their second studio album, Enter the Arena. Clearly influenced by the likes of Pantera, the band’s second studio effort affirms their spot as a force to be reckoned with in the landscape of American metal. The Texas-bred quintet takes the thrash metal genre and stretches it to the limit in this faster and harder take on the legendary thrash sound.
Warbeast joins acts like Lich King, Iron Reagan and Municipal Waste in a fiery explosion of a thrash metal revival that nobody saw coming. Although these bands have a certain niche fan base, they satisfy the metal community’s need for straight traditional thrash metal, something that has not been on the music industry’s radar for a while.
Enter the Arena absolutely reeks of intensity. The album daringly begins with its longest song, “Centuries of Poison and Soil,” which is essentially a bottomless riff salad. For the entire 7-minute song, there is not one moment of rest or relaxation from Warbeast, which is an impressive feat in and of itself. This song serves as a great kickoff to an entire album of back to back fast-paced drums and riff-happy guitar sections.
Throughout the rest of the album, Warbeast does not slow down in the slightest. They throw tracks at the listener such as “Orchestration of Violence” and “Enter the Arena” that seems to get even faster with each playback, and tracks like “Chemicals Consuming” and “Hitchhiker” that take on a groovier pace at times. The album is snare hits and spastic guitar lines straight through, which definitely will please some fans out there. However, it may also be the album’s downfall to anyone that is not a thrash metal aficionado.
Although Enter the Arena is impressive from a stamina perspective, there is not much diversity cover to cover. The songs seem to bleed into each other and also have no real differentiating factors. The intro of “Hitchhikers” yields some oddly memorable dialogue, but that is the only instance where it becomes clear exactly which song is on. The rest is full of nothing but fast-paced thrash, which could be a great thing depending on the listener’s love of that particular sect of metal.
The repetitive nature of this album could turn some people off. However, anyone who is a huge fan of nonstop kickass thrash metal will be thoroughly pleased with the work. Warbeast certainly gives a ton of energy and power with Enter the Arena, and that should definitely not be overlooked. Thrash metal is back and Warbeast takes a rightful spot at the helm.
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