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CULTURAL WARFARE
Warmageddon

M-Theory Audio (2018)
Rating: 8/10

Warmageddon is the debut assault from California thrashers Cultural Warfare, and if you’re looking for gnarly, measured and sneering heaps of hot chugging metal, then you’ve come to the right place.

Although not essentially nostalgic, much of this slightly overlong album does remind me of Metal Church; the crunchy yet melodic sound and the snarling vocals will be right up the street of anyone who likes that potent mix of thrash and power metal, and so Warmageddon should appeal to many.

Yep, these guys will be called a Bay Area act, but there’s more to their sound than just crunchy speed. In fact, the album is riddled with slower tempos that groove nicely in a mid-90s fashion. The title track is symbolic of that, with some excellent leads squirming through the mechanic haze. But for me, the bony percussion of Bones Padilla and brain-busting bass of Pete Aguilar are the stars here – both producing high levels of energy and revolving steel to accompany the excellent guitar work of Billy Garoutte and Kevin Doughty, and no frills yet effective vocal scowls of Jacques Serrano.

All tracks are tidily produced, but sometimes just a smite long as with the title cut, ‘Divided We Crawl’, ‘Two Spirits’ and ‘Politikill’. At times my attention tends to drift, but that’s not say that this is an uneventful album. Cultural Warfare plies its trade by serving up hard-hitting, straight-up muscular metal delivered with pace and bereft of gimmicks. Doomier, deeper rolls are occasionally injected (‘Divided We Crawl’), showcasing different angles from the band as Gothic hails permeate the grey air, but it’s not just downbeat in its view either.

At times I hear sneers of, say, Testament at their darkest, while at their most intricate and thoughtful there are hints of Metallica too, particularly with ‘Eyes Of The Land’ which has an essence of the epic and the majestic about its structuring. With ‘G.O.D.’, the band embarks onto darker shores, but there’s certainly plenty of speed to savour too. Standout tracks for me are the ferocious ‘Scars Left Cold’ with snapping pace, while ‘Politikill’ has an ashen yet steely Teutonic feel.

There’s a strong layer of menace throughout the album which really comes to the fore with another killer tune in the form of ‘Witches Prayer’, which is one of the darkest moments on the album. However, because the band is essentially Californian, there’s always that chance of being influenced by Slayer. I hear that with the excellent ‘Shadow Priest’, but then again, shades of Kreator leak through too, especially with the pallid melodies and then sudden bursts of cutting speed.

Warmageddon is the musical equivalent of being beaten to death by the bluntest of instruments; each track rampages hard and fast, which is summed up by the hostile expressions of ‘Blood Machines’ – arguably the most pissed off track on offer. Any thrash fan that dives into this grinding structure will applaud such venomous servings… if they’ve got any hands left, because Warmageddon is sure to reduce your limbs to bloody stumps and your brains to mush.

Neil Arnold

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