Grünberger

Warfist hail from Poland. They belong to these formations that combine skilfully the extreme trinity, thrash, black and death metal - and they do it exactly in this order. "Grünberger" shreds, pummels and rapes without sharp-edged thrash riffs, an overdose of Satanism or absurdly low tuned guitars. Nonetheless, its violence has an impact and it feels good that bands of this format seem to have enough commercial potential to let them record three albums - or even more. Don't get me wrong, the ten tracks do not sound commercial in any way, I am just happy that such combos find labels which release their stuff. Perhaps the close relationship of the beginning of "The Punishment" with that of "Hell Awaits" was a good reason for Godz ov War Productions to sign them. Unfortunately, nobody tells me if my suggestion is right, but one thing is certain: this piece belongs to the highlights of the album.

By the way, its an almost monolithic full-length. All tracks are cut from the same cloth. Warfist attack with unbreakable belligerence during the entire work and this approach has both bad and good aspects. I like this kind of full service, but the here presented material is not immune against a certain uniformity. It would not be fair to blame "Grünberger" for monotony and I also would not call it predictable. However, I must admit that the sonic inferno lacks the finishing touch every now and then. "Death by the Cleansing Fire", for example, offers stormy blast beats, violent patterns and a spoken part in German. A good song, no doubt at all. However, it does not force me to press the repeat button. The following quasi-title track creates the next Apocalypse and sounds like early Sodom. Either way, the result remains the same: a good song, no more, no less. The first track that gives the listener room to take a deep breath appears on the ninth position and these similar song patterns are pretty problematic over the entire playtime.

But grumpy old men like me are never satisfied, so do not take my complaints too seriously. Warfist have the right attitude, they avoid fillers and are able to offer their music with an adequately rumbling and infernal sound that transforms their natural aggressiveness. It's a borderline case, too good to be ignored and a little bit too limited to recommend it without restrictions. Therefore every extreme metal maniac, especially fans of old Kreator and, as mentioned before, early Sodom, should check out some songs in order to build her or his own opinion. But those of you who need some stimulants each morning can buy it blindly.

Originally written for metalegion.com

Finally, I've got Warfist's third album "Grünberger" in my hands. And finally I can listen to some killer old school thrash metal from this Polish band!!! Their previous album "Metal to the Bone" was insane, I absolutely loved it, so don't be surprised to read my enthusiasm about this newest CD. Warfist is worth it! In between these two full lengths Warfist has also unleashed a split CD "Laws of Perversion & Filth" with Excidium, but I'm still looking for a copy of it, so I'm yet to be 100% happy, but now it's "Grünberger" time, so let's rip this stuff!

And what can I write, other than it's absolutely enjoyable and awesome piece of thrash metal. When compared to the previous efforts, it feels like it's much more a pure and classic sounding thrash metal music, while previously it used to be harsher, darker, even on the edge of so called black / thrash. But "Grünberger" feels like a traditional thrash metal mainly in the German vein, but not only, as some riffs remind me old Sepultura a lot also (that first riff in "Feasting on Dead Bodies"!), which is great! And it's funny, as I'm not usually a big thrash metal, I don't even care for new thrash bands. But I like Warfist a lot and "Grünberger" turns into fuckin black gold. How come?!

I guess it's all because it's not wimpy stuff, but raw, aggressive and truly vicious (and sodomizing!! Because it's so much like Sodom!!!) thrash metal and the influences are just right here (did I mention Sodom?!). Take these vocals for instance - Mihu uses very harsh, aggressive voice, spits his lyrics with fury and that sounds better than these shitty vocals I can hear on most of thrash metal albums. Riffs are memorable, so every song turns into a nice thrashing piece, the production is surprisingly very clean, so I listen to this album with a great pleasure, banging skull like a crazy fuck. Do I need anything else? Nope. Although I think I liked "Metal to the Bone" a bit more. Nonetheless, Warfist again proved to be a great band and one of the very few new thrash metal acts, which I can listen to with no problems at all.

Standout tracks: "Slay, Swive and Devour", "Death by the Cleansing Fire"
Verdict: 75/100