War of Will

I heard about Battlecross from a large bunch of people on the internet who were incessantly raving about this new album. So, I decided to check it out. After a couple listens, I reached the following conclusion. Despite the fact that this is by no means a "bad" album, it was an extremely repetitive one. That was it's only real flaw. It's painstakingly monotonous. In every song, Battlecross displays a vast amount of technical proficiency. The drums are blasting, the bass is groovy, the guitar work is fabulous, and the vocals are relentless. The lyrics are even well constructed, especially by thrash standards. Not a single nebulous song about beer, politics, to radioactive cannibalistic zombies can be found on this record. Bonus points for that. That being said, a song or two into this, I just lost interest. By the time the end of the record rolled around, I was mind-numbingly bored. Unfortunately, this sometimes happens with metal albums, especially in thrash metal. It's something I like to call an AC/DC complex. When a great band writes a bunch of great songs that all sound the same. Bands get so caught up in sounding badass and having fast riffs that the objective of making interesting music gets lost on them.

Again, this record isn't awful. I will from time to time jam out to any of these songs (Force Fed Lies, Get Over It, Ghost Alive, and Flesh And Bone being my favorites). But after listening to a few songs, I can't continue. From what I hear though, this band is amazing live. That makes sense, because hearing this album played live would be awesome. It's raw, aggressive, and fun. Under the condition that I'm completely hammered, I bet that seeing Battlecross perform would be a blast. One thing Battlecross can certainly do is whip up a good batch of moshing songs. And for some people, they don't care how monotonous an album is, so long as it's good. If you're one of those people who digs repetitive thrash, you'll absolutely devour this album. However, if you're looking for good, interesting thrash that also succeeds at being very versatile, I'd stick to Warbringer or Kreator. Overall, the reason I think that this should've been an EP with the best songs picked out is because it didn't need to be as long as it was. Had the album been twenty minutes I would be praising the hell out of it right now. Unfortunately, it was forty minutes, and that just won't do.. Lastly, Battlecross, if you read this, and I say this with all due respect, you can clearly do better. Play around a little the next time you guys hit the studio. Try a slower song, do some acoustic stuff, write a ballad if you feel like it. Whatever you do, just try to jazz it up a little.

Battlecross are something of an interesting attraction, hailing from the Western side of the Atlantic and incorporating Gothenburg influences while not sounding like redundant garbage in the process. There is the occasional hint of metalcore tendencies at times, not all that different from the sort that tended to paint the early offerings of The Black Dahlia Murder, in both cases manifesting as a sort of over-indulgent attitude towards melodic contour and frequent shifts in feel that is similarly on display in technical acts like Arsis. This particular group of Michigan affiliates differentiate themselves from the two aforementioned outfits by offering up a slightly higher concentration of 80s Bay Area influences, largely culminating in a sound that marries the latter offerings of At The Gates with the constant speed/thrashing intensity of Dark Angel. It's a mixture that works fairly well, but one that hasn't really been tried in a way that also adheres to the present American scene.

Where "War Of Will" takes its cues is by taking a somewhat catchier approach than the Iron Maiden meets death/thrash character of "Pursuit Of Honor", opting for a sound that relies more on constant bludgeoning thrash work with a lot of catchy melodic riffs and less on atmospheric breaks. Arguably the only point where this album breaks with the sort of all fast, all the time character that typified "Darkness Descends" is the somewhat longer middle song "Get Over It", which kicks things off with a little bit of an "...And Justice For All" flavor with a slight national anthem-like hook before gradually developing into a fast as hell neck-ruining fest. There is also a brief atmospheric build up to be found on "Wage A War", though it doesn't hang around for very long and the song quickly explodes into a gallop-happy speed fest with plenty of high and low pitch shouts that channel both Tomas Lindberg and David Vincent.

The thing that really separates this album from becoming little more than a more intense version of the contrived mediocrity that comes out of As I Lay Dying and All That Remains is a complete avoidance of comical melodic sections and clean vocals. Nevertheless, for a good indicator of how this album tends to lean slightly towards a metalcore sound can be heard during several sections on the opening number "Force Fed Lies" with its almost power metal-like hooks despite kicking off with an overtly Exodus-inspired riff, and similar moments pop out of otherwise high octane thrash fits such as "My Vaccine" and "Flesh & Bone" (the latter sounding like it took some inspiration from In Flames' "Whoracle" and threw in a few mid-80s German speed metal riffs). Then again, there is a complete break with the thrash style heard on "Beast", which tends to come off more as a marriage of Cannibal Corpse with a side order of The Crown here and there, most notably when the consonant, singing guitar solo sections chimes in.

At the end of the day, what makes this album work so well is that it's fun and easy to grab hold of, while simultaneously being elaborate and original enough to avoid being lumped in with a stale, hopefully soon to be dead New England metalcore scene. "War Of Will" is the sort of album that is generally American in character (though with plenty of Scandinavian influences) but also one that has universal appeal to any and all thrash and melodic death metal fans. This generally matches the same level of intensity of The Black Dahlia Murder, a band that this one is easy to compare to given their similar sounding melodic hooks, but it comes off just slightly better organized than much of said band's work. That said, this album stands just fine without any frame of reference from other American contemporaries, and will be an auditory treat for anyone with the will to survive it's war-like intensity.