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THUNDERWAR
Wolfpack EP

Lifeforce (2018)
Rating: 8/10

After their impressive 2016 debut full-length outing Black Storm, Poland’s Thunderwar have returned for what I’d hoped would be another album. But us salivating fans are just too greedy, and so we get treated to somewhat of a teaser with Wolfpack, featuring five tracks, one of which is an impressive cover of Darkthrone’s ‘The Winds They Called The Dungeon Shaker’.

Now, I’ve touted these guys before as one of the next-best things, but for some reason extreme metal fans still seem late in coming to the party, which is probably down to the over-saturated scene whereby hordes of bands are vying for attention.

Thunderwar let the music do the talking, rumbling from the caverns with the opening title track. And ‘Wolfpack’ is a prime example as to why I love these guys so much, crossing styles so effortlessly as we get treated to a mesh of black metal strands, traditional metal grooves, punky, riotous shouts and then a death metal aesthetic, particularly with Kamil “Madness” Mandes’ dehydrated vocal style which bridges the gap between Netherland’s tech-deathsters Pestilence and Floridian masters Obituary.

While so many bands are keen to ape the past, Thunderwar somehow create their own refreshing style, remaining catchy, heavy and above all brooding and ominous by injecting the racier passages with sudden moodier segments before resorting to a black / thrash outburst.

The progression from the 2013 EP The Birth Of Thunder is there for all to see as ‘Woodland Spirit’ begins with stark chords and then a killer chug based around the stabbing drums. This is probably my favourite track the EP has to offer; a sinister-sounding wedge of dark metal with rumbling bass, sprawling chugging guitars, but flecks on nice melody too. The leads of Witold Ustapiuk supply the infectious thread as Maciej “Olszak” Olszewski’s riffs gurgle nicely, before an explosion occurs and all join forces to create a cascading Dissection-styled tirade.

Influences are numerous but only fleeting as they worm their way through ‘Circle Of Runes’ and ‘Thunderer’ in exquisite, melodic death metal fashion, with occasional veers into sharper, barbaric black metal flare ups. Throughout all four original cuts, however, the riffs remain snappy, the vocals choppy and the mood dank in spite of the fizzing melodies.

The Darkthrone cover is certainly more than adequate, but I’d have preferred another new Thunderwar track. However, when all is said and done, Thunderwar have successfully crafted another nifty slab of thrashing death blackness, the sort of relevant sound which is not overly heavy or sick, but somehow just right. Now, get to work on that second album!

Neil Arnold

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