Depicting the Macabre

I’m certainly not the biggest thrash metal fan. Fact is I rarely listen to the genre, and when I do it’s only a handful of bands I feel deserve listening. I receive thrash promos way more often than I’d like, which forces me to listen to a genre I hardly know anything about, and hence don’t feel like the right man to judge. But nonetheless I try to judge it from a relatively objective point of view in an attempt to see what fans of the genre might find appealing. Depicting the macabre is Warfect’s debut album, and the first release under that name. They hail from the surroundings of Gothenburg, and unfortunately it sounds like it.

The opening track Creation is a somewhat boring track, to be perfectly honest. It’s quite slow and melodic, and displays their melodic death metal influence a whole lot. That particular style rubs me the wrong way and I’ve always had a problem coping with the horrific Gothenburg-ish death metal sound. I’m not sure why they chose to open with such a track as it would seem much more fitting with one of their more aggressive and energetic bits, like for instance the following track Heathen reigns. And material wise they linger somewhere in between the melodic and aggressive side of the matter. When they really pick up the pace, like in I factor, they still maintain the melody by their well accomplished riffing and guitar leads. That song also contains a wicked guitar solo towards the end, something they don’t revel too much in, but with their obvious talent I think they could pull off a bigger dose of it. Of course I prefer their faster and harder bits, but I can’t deny the fact that they really do pull off Never to return as well; a genuine ballad in the vein of older Metallica.

The instrument handling is pretty much flawless. The drumming is magnificent with loads of varying beats to keep it interesting and hinder it from any kind of staleness. The riffing goes from rapid to chugging, and always laced with good leads. But something that truly bugs me is the vocal department. There’s not really anything wrong with his voice, he pulls off both clean and scorching thrash screams, but it sounds as though recorded through a pipeline and unmixed. It just doesn’t fit into the rest of the music, leaving it feeling unmixed in comparison. It bugs the hell out of me and really makes it difficult to focus. But music wise it’s definitely good, just not for me. It’s a wee bit too melodic and the flirtations with melodic death metal are too heavy for my taste. If you imagine a mix of Soilwork and Slayer I’d say Warfect would be a good candidate for an end result.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net

Warfect, a new thrashing act from Sweden, released their debut full length, Depicting the Macabre, in late 2009. The band clearly draws influence from all over the board. There’s quite a few hints into Sweden’s melodic death metal past, but the overall sound is fairly groove oriented and sometimes reminds me quite a bit of Machine Head. While it’s nice to see the band drawing from a wide range of influences, it doesn’t seem to always work in their favour.

The sound is generally melodic and clean, but the tempos vary throughout. The opener, Creation, offers a fairly memorable riff and some technically diverse drumming, but overall, I think it’s a bit of lacklustre way to set things off. The vocals are a strange shouting style and don’t seem to meld with the music. The chorus is catchy enough, but it simply leaves me unconvinced. Fortunately things pick the hell up after this and the next two tracks are much more aggressive, which I think is the kind of music Warfect play better. The vicious verses in both Heathen Reigns and the title track just make me wonder why they didn’t open the album with a scorcher, because moments like these sound so much more confident. Heathen Reigns has a very melodic chorus, which sounds a bit inapt at first but I find it fits better than Creation. It also packs a cool solo and a really nice outro. I find that faster tracks like Supervised Life and Truth Untold succeed much more than the slower ones (Never to Return, Creation).

Overall, this is a professional sounding debut from a new Swedish band. Nevertheless, I don’t think Warfect have really displayed an album with a personality that is fully their own. The riffs are good, drums are nice, the vocals are mostly there, but everything just doesn’t really click in some moments. I appreciate the band’s effort and would say they have good potential, but I wouldn’t say they have displayed an identity of their own on this debut release.

Originally written for www.metal-observer.com

Warfect is a new band playing thrash/groove metal with a lot of very similar elements to the melodic death metal scene out of their native Sweden. Rapid fire charging rhythms, melodic guitars, huge breakdowns and a mix of aggressive vocals with cleaner chorus parts. I would say the band reminds me of The Defaced, or perhaps Soilwork without the keyboards everywhere. Fredrik Wester (formerly in Lord Belial) performs the vocals and guitars, and his accent gives the style a sort of constipated, aggressive feeling, though the cleans are really clear.

This is a band that seems to get exponentially better, the heavier the songs are. For example, the title track "Depicting the Macabre" is a scorcher, from the frantic riffing of its verses to the great breakdown, lathered in good leads to offset the simplicity of the chugging. "Supervised Life" is a bruiser with some trilling rhythms that ascend into a thrusting verse which will have all fans of The Haunted or The Defaced wringing their own necks. Other fast paced spinebreakers include "Heathen Reigns", "I Factor", "Harvest of Trinity" and "Truth Untold". The balladic "Never to Return" reminds me of something Metallica would do, a slower acoustic ballad that picks up into mid-paced metal bliss, and the vocals actually shine. On the flipside, I didn't really enjoy the grooving rhythms of the first track "Creation", so I was expecting much worse from the album.

Depicting the Macabre has a pretty good sound, the guitars crush without any excessive polish, and the acoustics glint and gleam where they appear. The drums and bass are good and loud, and this is certainly a comparable mix to many of the similar Swedish bands. I didn't love Warfect's debut, but there is enough here to satisfy fans of early Carnal Forge, as well as the bands I listed earlier in the review.

Highlights: Depicting the Macabre, Supervised Life, Harvest of Trinity

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com