REVIEW: Warbringer

Artist: Warbringer

Album: Waking Into Nightmares

Release Date: May 19, 2009

Genre(s): Thrash, neo-thrash

THRASH!!! The year is 2009, and it's a very, very good year to be a thrasher. All your favorite thrash bands from the past are back to kick ass (this year, we're seeing new albums from Kreator, Slayer, and Megadeth), but that's not the reason you should be glad to be a thrasher right now. It's because, for once, there's a new wave of talented young rippers who are taking pride in playing music the way Satan wanted them to. There are countless neo-thrash bands on the scene today, and let's face it, not all of them are worth your time, but there are a bunch who have serious chops. Hands down, the most notable American neo-thrash band is Warbringer.

What makes Warbringer so special? A lot of things. Warbringer plays thrash, straight-up the way we remember it, the way we love it, with amazing proficiency and sincerity. Warbringer loves thrash, and if you love thrash, you'll love Warbringer, because thrash is their calling. Or maybe you love Warbringer because of their live dominance. If you frequent metal shows, I'm sure you've caught at least one of their performances (these guys tour CONSTANTLY), and I bet you had a killer time, too. These guys energize their songs and pump their crowd, adding up to some awesome freakin' pits. I know the reason I love Warbringer is because they're the most fan-friendly band I've ever met. If you go to one of their concerts, they'll be out in the lobby, hanging with fans; not merely polite greetings either, these dudes will have full conversations with fans. They're cool, funny, friendly, and all-around awesome people. It should be a crime to not love Warbinger; there's not a bad thing I can say about them.

As for their new album, Waking Into Nightmares owns, like holy crap, it's thrash to the core. I'm sure I don't have to bother explaining what thrash sounds like, so let me assure you guys, this is something you'll want to own if you're down with the thrash sound. The riffs sound amazing, the speed is wondrous to behold; it all sounds heavy and beautiful (by beautiful, I mean thrashy and violent!). New drummer Nic Ritter reaches a much greater height than his predecessor, busting out some fast and technical stuff that sounds just awesome. The bass adds a thick layer of infrasonic punishment (I've tried playing some of these songs on bass---they sound good!). And of course, the vocals are the greatest thing I can mention. John Kevill has an impetuous scream that sounds vehement beyond comparison. He shrieks out every song with as much force as he can muster, and really gives each song an extra push that makes them exceptional.

Warbringer knows all the right ingredients to make music sound good, and at no point does any of the music seem contrived. War Without End (2008) was a sick album, but Waking Into Nightmares takes things to a whole new level. Warbringer is a god among current metal bands, and this is a modern thrash-terpiece. Any thrashers out there who don't own this album yet are gonna take some punches in the pit!!!

Track to Check: "Senseless Life"

Rating: 9.0/10

-Psychotic Pulse

Review Grading Scale

I do things on a 1-10 scale because I feel like it's the best way to express the quality of an album accurately. The scale has range, yet is still easily understandable. However, for the sake of clarity, I will give a brief summary of my scoring system, as people's understanding of the 1-10 system may vary. Here's how I recommend albums:

9-10: Oh man, you MUST check out this cd.

7-8: Should LISTEN to this album, it's good.

4-6: You MIGHT want to listen based on your preferences.

1-3: Do NOT listen to this album.

Now, here's a detailed summary of what you can expect from each score.

10/10 - One of the best albums I've ever heard. Required listening for metalheads.

9/10 - This album is amazing, and a standout release this year. It's hard to get this score;albums that do are usually something special.

8/10 - Certainly very good, and you will probably not be disappointed what you hear if the album gets an 8.

7/10 - It's a good album, but not a great one. If an album gets a 7, glance at the review. If the album sounds interesting, you will enjoy it for sure, but it may not be for everyone.

6/10 - Above average. A recommendation on an album earning a 6 would be iffy. Diehard fans of the band should still get it. There may be something holding it back from being a good album.

5/10 - Average: not bad, not good. Albums like this can be uninteresting, contain a lot of filler, or are just not noteworthy. They may still be enjoyable, but don't expect a lot from an album that gets a 5.

4/10 - Below average. Here is an album that has flaws, something worth complaining about. If an album gets a 4, be cautious before listening; chances are, you won't be too impressed.

3/10 - A bad album. At this point, I don't think you should listen to the album at all. A cd that receives a 3 just isn't good.

2/10 - Terrible, just awful. There's no reason anyone should ever listen to any release that gets this score. Avoid at all costs.

1/10 - Hahahaha. Any album that "earns" a 1 is just laughably bad.

So there you have it. Hope this helps anyone who is confused about the graing system for my reviews.

REVIEW: Animals as Leaders

Artist: Animals as Leaders

Album: Animals as Leaders

Release Date: April 28, 2009

Genre(s): Instrumental, prog metal

From the moment I started listening to this album, I knew it was something special. I turned on my MP3 player and found myself in one of those great, rare cases in which the music is felt more than heard. The music flowed from my headphones to the rest of my body, slowly enfolding me. Thought-provoking and enrapturing, Animals as Leaders provokes emotion within oneself as only an instrumental band can do.

Lacking any vocals, the musicians (or musician, in this case) have to work hard in order to get the feeling across within their instrumentation. It's the downfall of many instrumental-prog bands, ones who can noodle on their guitar all day, but still not produce anything expressive. Not so with this band; listen to Animals as Leaders, shut out the rest of the world, and you will start seeing images, feeling things in yourself that you didn't know existed.

That's not to say Animals as Leaders isn't highly impressive technically, of course. Some of the guitarwork will blow your mind. The entire album was written and recorded by eight-string guitar virtuoso Tobin Abasi, which makes it all the more impressive, and effective as well. It works in the listener's favor having the ability to see one man's vision, making it more accessible, easier to grasp the message that Abasi is trying to convey wordlessly.

All the gears in this system work together, with no weak link. Guitar and bass flow smoothly, as do the drums and synthesizer. Abasi's gets a sound out of his guitar that's both jaw-dropping and breathtaking, sometimes simultaneously. There aren't really enough words to fully describe the dramatic effect of the music. This is one release that you absolutely have to experience.

I'd been planning on reviewing Animals as Leaders for a while, but I held off, for one simple reason. I wanted to see if this disc had staying power. At this point, I feel foolish for ever questioning that. Nothing sounds quite like AaL, and very few acts could ever hope to produce something quite this brilliant. This is most definitely the greatest instrumental piece you will hear this year.

Track to Check: "Tempting Time" (then the rest of the tracks if that gets you hooked)

Rating: 9.9/10

-Psychotic Pulse

REVIEW: Job for a Cowboy

Artist: Job for a Cowboy

Album: Ruination

Release Date: July 7, 2009

Genre(s): Deathcore, death metal

Holy shit - that's a fucking BADASS album art. You're browsing the metal section in your local music retailer, looking for a new cd to bang your head to. After seeing that display of awesomeness, you're ready to drop your hard earned cash, take it home, and play the shit out of it. With artwork like that, you've got a death metal masterpiece in your hands for sure. Right?

...Right? Sadly, no. You couldn't have been more wrong. The moment Ruination enters the disc tray, starts spinning, and the speakers start lamentably vomiting out the first song, you realize you've made a grave mistake. And it's too late. The sadistic members of the band must be laughing now, knowing you're in for a sad forty minutes of suffering and pain. Not the good kind of pain, like the smash-you-in-the-face brutality of a Cannibal Corpse album. The pain that makes you want to stop living; the kind of pain that can come only from mistakenly purchasing a horrible album. You've just been introduced to Job for a Cowboy.

You can tell right away that the relationship between you two isn't going to work out, and you wish you'd never met. You want to like Job for a Cowboy; you may see the good in them deep down, their sweeeet death metal core, but it's hard to get past all of their glaring flaws. For starters, you can't communicate with each other properly. Why? Maybe because the voice gets on your nerves. The vocalist's growl is deep and sounds pretty good, but all of a sudden, he'll switch up his style (mid-verse, no less) without cause or warning, and do this high shriek that makes him sound like a complete ass. You wouldn't mind this one little issue if he did it less, but it keeps happening, and you don't know how to live with it.

As time goes on, you start neglecting Job for a Cowboy, spending less time with them. You feel bad, but it's just something you can't bring yourself to do. This band bores the hell out of you. Their riffs are generic far beyond interest. Once in a while it strikes up something that really interests you, but that cool part of that song is over before you know it, and it's back to that driving monotony you've gotten used to. You dread the premise of giving Ruinaton another go-around, knowing full well that it's going to drag on and on and on and on and on and on miserably. When you think one of these songs is going to end, your spirits lift at the prospect of getting to hear something different (if only slightly), and then come crashing down when the song continues. Never before have you wanted something to end so badly.

Relationships require a sense of rhythm from both participants, and the rhythm in Job for a Cowboy's latest album can only be described as erratic. You can only help but feel sorry for the drummer, witnessing that he has such talent yet no idea what to do with it. He overuses the cymbals in every song, including parts where it seems entirely inappropriate. The drum part changes at least 6 times per passage; there's no consistency whatsoever. It's hard for you to get into the songs when the drum parts sound like a bunch of randomly hit difficult patterns that the this guy played, clearly while attempting to show off, looped throughout the song, without even an effort to sync them with the other instruments. When you realize that the driving force behind everything doesn't even make sense to you, then you realize that it's time to break up.

And that's it - your relationship with Job for a Cowboy, which seemed so sincere at first, has come to a swift end. You can't say you hated everything about Ruination, though. There's a memorable solo here or there, and it's decidedly less deathcore-sounding than the band's previous work. You may be able to give them credit for that, but it's certainly not enough to make Ruination worth a listen. Any group with a couple good guitarists and a resilient drummer can get together, play something heavy, and call it death metal, but that doesn't mean it's going to be good. Coherent songwriting and expression are musts, and JFAC fails so miserably in that category, they're not even worth calling a band.

Ruination hasn't touched your cd player for weeks, and it's found a new home inside your recepticle bin, but the memories of the bad times you spent with it will haunt you forever.

Track to Check: God help you if you even think about listening to this album, but each song is as mindless and putrid as the other.
Score: 2.6/10

-Psychotic Pulse

Opinion: "Metal from a Non-metalhead's Perspective"

Opinion Column by Mattysandwich

Also check my blog at http://www.mattysandwich.blogspot.com/

Welcome to the Sand Witch Review. I’m Mattysandwich and here is my, hey wait a minute where am I this isn’t my blog?

Psychoticpulse: Hey Matty it’s me Psycho and I want you to do a review on metal from a non metal head perspective.

Mattysandwich: well what if I say no?

Psychoticpulse: I’ll turn you straight.

Mattysandwich: I would like to see you try! There isn’t a force on the planet stronger then my yaoi!

Psychoticpulse: I have more porn then you will ever be able to comprehend inside my box. Do not listen to me and I will open the box. You don’t want me to open the box, do you?

So let’s not waste any time shall we? What can I say about metal? Well, a lot of things but most of them aren’t nice. Alright that’s a little cruel but here’s my reasoning behind it I don’t hear anything. With some metal the instruments are so loud that you can’t hear what the singer is saying and if you can hear him he sounds like he has some retarded speech disorder. I mean, it sounds like a lot of groaning. What’s so musically inspiring about groaning? I could just as easily wake up next to a few of my friends and I get that same kind of reaction. Also, a lot of metal lyrics are really dark. I mean, sure everyone tries to bring a message, but when you’re bringing a message about ripping people’s limbs off and eating there flesh, what are you trying to explain? The only thing that I can think of is that metal is a code word for crying for psychological help in which case the right people better be ready to listen.

Psychoticpulse: No Matty you’re not doing what I asked you to do.

Matty: You asked me to review metal Psycho! I’m reviewing it based off the general feeling I have of it.

Psychoticpulse: Alright then fair enough. Why don’t you review a few songs then so that you can get a real taste for metal?

Matty: Come on Psycho do I really have to?

Psychoticpulse: The box Matty.

Matty: Alright then you win give me your songs. Just don’t open the box I beg you.

Psychoticpulse: I thought you would see it my way.

Alright well since I’m reviewing metal I have been given a list of different types of metal. The first song on my list is “Run to the Hills,“ by Iron Maiden. Alright, this song loses right off the bat. I only listened to the first verse and I already wanted to kill them. Although there message is strong about the white man destroying everything, they themselves are white! So when they talk about how they fought the white man, did they smash mirrors wherever they went? I mean come on the message makes no sense. And then just to top it all off it talks about rape and killing children. Come on metal I don’t want my stereotypes to be right. I want to wake up every morning with the knowledge I give everything I try but you’re making it so god damn hard. I’ll give it one thing though, it does have good instrumentals. However this makes me wish that my other stereotype was right and that this song’s lyrics would be blocked out by them. Overall I’m rating this two out of five let’s hope the next song is better.

The next song I get to look at on my fun list is “Angel of Death,” by Slayer. Alright since you know I’m going to be ripping this song a new asshole by the end of this short review let me first say what I like. I actually appreciate the message this song brings out. Although rather disturbing, overall the holocaust was extremely disturbing so it would only be right if the lyrics matched it as well. Now that I got that out of my system, let me be the first to say that this guy sucks at singing! I mean, did he even try? It sounds like he’s trying to make the song harder to understand. Come on singer this is the first set of lyrics I agree with at least give me a clear delivery! Also I dislike the band’s music. Unlike Iron Maiden when the music was tolerable, this music is too beat crazy and I hate it. Fortunately I can mute it and turn on my new song. I’m giving this song another two out of five and let’s see how the next one pans out.

Matty: Alright, you know what I’m not reviewing this. I gave in to everything else but this is the where I draw the line.

Psychoticpulse: Do you want me to open the box Matty?

Matty: I don’t care anymore. There is no way in hell I am reviewing “Stripped, Raped, And Strangled” by Cannibal Corpse.

Psychoticpulse: You know I also have a bag full of yuri. Even if you survive the first wave there’s no way you’re getting past this.

Matty: Please, this has to end.

Psychoticpulse: And it will with the bag of yuri. “Begins to open bag and already Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune begin to make out.”

Matty: Alright you win! I can’t take it I fall to your blade.

So yeah, I’m also going to be reviewing “Stripped, Raped, And Strangled” by Cannibal Corpse God help me. I don’t even think I need to listen to the song the answer to my review is right in the title. I mean, come on could be any more subtle? It’s like walking around naked there has to be some kind of penalty for it. Yes it turns out there is a penalty for this kind of music and it is that I believe Australia which forbids them from having any concerts there. And as they should this kind of music really should have no place. I believe like rap, this music should be burned at the stake. This song gets a one out of five. Who says you can’t judge a book by its cover?

Now it’s time for my next song Hair metal: “Nothin’ But a Good Time” by Poison. Alright I enjoyed this song. There’s no rape or murder in the lyrics just a normal song. The singer is easy on the ears and so is the band. Well this is a good song. In fact, maybe this will change my entire perspective on metal. Well, it might once bands like Cannibal Corpse burn in hell. Until then, I’ll listen to this song from the shadows. This songs deserves a five out of five. Finally, something that I can say I enjoyed.

Alright now it’s time for my next song "This Calling" by All That Remains. I remember this song from Guitar Hero. I appreciate this song’s chorus but the verses can quietly mute themselves. While I’m confused on what the lyrics are trying to explain because the only thing I can translate is the calling verses and the lyrics aren’t helping too much. Oh well, the instruments were good and I can say that this is not the worst I heard so far. I’m rating this three out of five because it can be better, but I’m not complaining.

The next song on the list is “Inferno” by Symphony X. I can safely say that this is definitely a high lighter of metal. While it’s still playing on some of my metal stereotypes, it doesn’t obsess in them so I can actually enjoy it. I feel like a nobody feeling happiness, something that shouldn’t happen but is. This is actually making me really happy. In fact, since this song is making me so happy I’m going to give it a five out of five. Hopefully the last song won’t ruin it for me.

Holy crap did I choose the wrong song to end this review on. Incase you didn’t know, I am referring to “Through the Fire and Flames” by DragonForce. God this song sounds like it’s in a rush to be finish it’s going so fast. Not only is it in a rush it’s also not well constructed in any way. It’s just fast. I mean, is anyone trying to follow the lyrics? Another problem is that this song is aggravatingly long. I mean, come on! Couldn’t you shorten it to three minutes? I would even deal with four but seven minutes twenty one seconds?! Think of all the other things this band could be doing with there time if they weren’t making there songs as long as some computer games. They could be helping starving kids in Africa, finding a cure for cancer, or even driving off a cliff with Cannibal Corpse. Any one out of the three I would prefer. This song I’m giving a one out of five and don’t you dare comment on how I’m being too harsh.

So yeah, this is my review on metal. I have to admit it wasn’t as painful as I thought and to be honest, I actually enjoyed myself a tad. However in truth I will continue to see this genre of music through my biased eyes and it’s going to take a while before I’m ready to fully embrace it. Or maybe once Cannibal Corpse dies horribly I’ll give it another go either one is going to take time. While I wish I didn’t have to do this review, at least he didn’t open the bag again. Well, I’m logging off now. This has been a Sand Witch Review and until next time, your time is out.

-Mattysandwich

REVIEW: Born of Osiris

Artist: Born of Osiris

Album: A Higher Place

Release Date: July 7, 2009

Genre(s): Tech-death, metalcore

If your eyes haven't started reeling at the genre classification for these guys (technical death and... metalcore? Huh?!), then keep reading. These guys provide one hell of a weird genre fusion that somehow works (dare I say it?), spledidly. The guitars lay down metalcore riffs and technical sweeps in the same song. You'll hear the drummer do breakdowns and later go into sixteenth-note and double bass mania. The vocalist utilizes a death growl most of the time, but throws in the occasional metalcore scream to shake things up. Why does it work?

This genre-fusion works because it sounds so damn cool when these guys do it, plain and simple. Bands have tried mixing death metal and metalcore, with some less-than-stellar results (Job for a Cowboy, anyone? No thanks!); Born of Osiris thankfully put some more creativity into the process. Metalcore is a very stale genre with little diversity, so leave it to Born of Osiris to take the best aspects of it, cut the fat, and leave it on the plate, while experimenting with one of the very few metal genres that has yet to be played out: techincal death metal. What is the result?

The result is an album that surprises listeners by contrasting brutality with melody at the drop of a hat. There's a bright atmosphere behind all of the dark overtones; never before have I listened to a record with such pounding heaviness and came away with an uplifting feeling. It's a compelling sound, without a doubt, and most of the songs stick out in my mind, the novelty no doubt playing a major role. Those looking for something new, you absolutely have to give this album a shot; it's progressive and absolutely refreshing.

The repitition, surprisingly, is kept to a minimum due to the album's rational concesity. Almost all of the tracks on A Higher Place run under three minutes, making sure that none of the songs wear out their welcome. The 13 songs add up to slightly over half an hour, giving it a short but sweet spin in your stereo. Each of the tunes have a similar-sound when they first start out, but the disc keeps you listening to hear what sort of changes the band will throw in as each song picks up.

This is a very interesting listen for open-mided metalheads. If you're tired of hearing the numerous unoriginal, lifeless clones of last decade's metal bands (that happen to be so prevalent in this decade), make it your business to pick up a copy of A Higher Place. It's one of those releases that supports my theory that metal has more to offer than we ever imagined. Those who appreciate originality may come to agree after taking this record out for a few spins.

Track to Check: "Starved"

Score: 8.8/10

More Info At: www.myspace.com/bornofosiris

-Psychotic Pulse

Welcome to the Psychotic Pulse!

This is a short intro post briefly detailing my blog's mission. It's a constantly updated post dedicated to bringing you the latest metal news and reviews from a diehard expert on the genre. We'll be bringing you album reviews weekly, the tour dates for sick shows, and the biggest news about what's going on in the metal industry today. Opinion columns or metal-related subjects may occasionally feature, as well.

E-mail me at Bedlam_1-2-3(at)hotmail(dot)com if you wish to contribute!

To metal!!!

-Psychotic Pulse