The Enforcer

When thinking about Warrant, the hair band comes quickly in the mind of many people that consider them metal, no wonder why it's not in the archives ... Anyway, we're in a totally different situation here, Warrant is the speed metal band from Germany, at least for old school metal listeners. They unfortunately had a very short life as a band, most of their active moments happened in 1985, and they disbanded that same year shortly after the release of the "First Strike" EP. Despite its confusing name, this is not their first release. The debut and sole album of those Germans is "The Enforcer", also released in 1985. The cover art shows their mascot I guess? Because they literally used that executioner in every release they have, including their comeback album released a few years ago in 2014.

Although this band's journey occurred in the right time for such music, they still didn't catch much attention in the German scene, even if they were signed at the big label Noise Records. However, the guys of Warrant were great and skilled musicians as well, this album is the exact proof of my statement here. The "The Enforcer" album material consists of nine tracks plus an introduction, for a total running time of 37 minutes and most of the songs are typical speed metal, clocking at 3-4 minutes each on average. The intro is more or less useful in that particular case, I guess it was just to add some suspense to what awaits the listener after it ends.

As soon as the first real song begins, which is "The Rack", you will easily notice the musical horizon that Warrant took. This track is pretty much what defines speed metal in general, with its fast-paced main riff and aggressive drumming. They can easily be compared with other country mates of Germany such as Avenger (or early Rage), Running Wild and some similarities with Iron Angel on the fastest songs obviously. One thing to convince you that the band knew how to write great memorable songs back in the 80s is how every chorus is catchy as hell, after a few listens, this shit caused a brainstorm in my head. You will get my point especially by listening to "Cowards or Martyrs" and "Torture in the Tower", which especially has the most killer riffs of the whole album. Even if it's mainly a speed metal record, some tracks show some interesting heavy metal variations. The more mid-paced "Betrayer" and "Send Ya' to Hell" are great examples of their heaviest riffs of the record. There are also pretty cool guitar solos, in the "The Enforcer" track for instance. What about the vocal department? Well, Jörg Juraschek did a fabulous job, as soon as I heard his voice for the first time, I knew that I would like it. Unlike the evil sounding of many other bands, Warrant opted for a cleaner voice with some harsh screams at times that perfectly fits in the aggressivity of the music. Despite how brillant these guys were, they didn't experiment that much musically speaking, nothing too complex on here, but still well-written songs and in the good manner. The guitar duo is sharing the lead parts in some songs, such as the 5 minutes "Ordeal of Death", there are some interesting melodic passages as well.

What is a little painful with this album is the uninspired title and lyrical subjects, which are metal, violence and sex. I personally didn't care much about it, but it still worth mentioning that songs like "Nuns Have No Fun" and "Die Young" have boring lyrics ... But anyway, the songs are still killer. The production work on this album is amazing, all the instruments are heard perfectly and well-balanced too. This is mainly because they were signed to Noise Records, a bit like other bands such as Deathrow, Vendetta and Helloween, who were also signed on them, and all got nicely produced records. Even if I mostly prefer the more raw sound, it's still a 80s record and has a unique sound.

Overall, this is a near perfect album with some minor flaws, but who cares? This is an album that I recommend to all fans of speed metal in general. It's not enough of a well-known record, and people need to give it a chance, in fact, all their releases of 1985 are worthy of being listened to. I'm warning you though, maybe you will get some song choruses stuck in your head as you listen to them.

Favourite songs :

Cowards or Martyrs
The Enforcer
The Rack
Torture in the Tower

Either my brain cells rot faster than I thought or the discography of Warrant displays a little mistake. I am almost sure that "First Strike" was, due to its name, earlier released than "The Enforcer". Anyway, here we have the debut full-length. Too bad that it remained the only (relevant) album of the band. Just like so many other ensembles at that time, Warrant were motivated by their inspiring surrounding. Thousands of like-minded adolescents stood up in order to make some metallic noise. A minority, but a strong minority. Finally, fascinating albums were shooting up like mushrooms. Warrant were not the kings of the new movement, but they delivered a good contribution in the form of "The Enforcer".

Compared with the rumbling debuts of some more vehement newcomers, for example Kreator or Living Death, Warrant's album is free from technical awkwardness. Just like Deathrow, the band originated from the pretty fashionable Düsseldorf, but this was the only thing that these two groups had in common. The sound of Warrant was and still is rather comparable with the first two albums of Rage or, to a lesser extent, the debut of Grinder. Speed metal (or call it thrash, it doesn't matter) and a well recognizable amount of power metal build the fundament. The lyrics are completely naive ("Heavy metal is my life, someday I'll be a star... F**king groupies all night long"), but nobody took notice of this moronic vision. It also did not matter that already Mercyful Fate had figured out that "Nuns Have no Fun" (by the way, great discovery). Much more relevant was the music and "The Enforcer" shines with a handful of speedy compositions. All of them are very coherently designed. Let's have a look at some of them in chronological order.

"The Rack" is a classic opener, a real child of its time. In combination with the short acoustic intro, "The Rack" is Warrant's answer to "Fight Fire with Fire" which had been released one year earlier by a more or less well known band from the US of A. A strong riff provides fine stitches, the conservative song pattern works and the relatively normal voice of the lead singer possesses a certain amount of charisma. The riff of the title track is, well, not completely different to that of "The Rack", but this similarity ensures another strong riff attack. Although the chorus of "The Enforcer" shows the indication of a melody, this tune reveals the speed affinity of the guys once again. "Torture in the Tower" needs a short warm-up period, but afterwards it also bows down to the Gods of velocity. Its verses score with an interesting guitar work that lends the song a certain depth and the same goes for the instrumental part after the second chorus.

Some less rapid tunes leave a good impression as well. Enjoy the abrasive guitars of the stupidly titled "Die Young", the gripping main riff of the power metal heralding "Send Ya' to Hell" or the casually rocking "Betrayer". It is exciting to see that almost each and every chorus echoes in the head. Although the band has impressive technical skills, the effectiveness of the songs is always in the focus of their efforts. It would be hyperbolic to say that the album holds nine killers after the intro, but I can promise that even the weakest track (please make your choice) achieves a solid level. This means that absolutely none of the transparently produced, vigorous songs goes into the ditch. The clean sound avoids sterility and takes me back in time. Unfortunately, this is just a nice dream. Otherwise I would check which output was the firstly released, Warrant's EP with the jewel "Scavenger's Daughter" or the recommendable "The Enforcer".

...If this was playing in the background!

So me and one of my buddies decided not too long ago that we wanted to check out some of the older heavy/speed metal bands that weren't as known as your usual bounch of classic acts. We would eventually stumble upon this release, and the both of us have grown quite fond of it to say the least! This album came out in 1985, and we were both pretty surprised this wasn't as known as it should have been.

"The Enforcer" starts off with a solid accustic guitar intro, and dives right into "The Rack" which is a great speedster (Doesn't the opening riff in this song remind one a little of "Victim of States Power" by Running Wild?). This riff might be similar to that song, and the sound of the album is somewhat similar to "Gates To Purgatory", but I don't think this is anything but a mere coincidence. "Ordeal of Death" follows, and is more of a mid-paced number, with astounding riffs, but it is by no means a down-beat song. These two tracks definitely set the tone for what to expect on the rest of the record.

An earlier reviewer stated that even though the riffs are mostly simple, they are written in such a way that that's something you don't really pay that much attention to. One thing I also noticed while listening to this is that even when there's a guitar solo going on, you still wanna pay close attention to the actual riff that's going on in that background. And especially because of the fact that many of the rifs played when there's a solo going on are riffs you won't be hearing in the rest of the actual song.

The vocals on this record are outstanding. The singer shows a lot of skill in more than one department. He has an inspired clean style of singing, and the occasional screams and harsh yells definitely doesn't make it worse! The heavy/speed metal genre isn't known for having the most aggressive vocals, but this guy breaks the tradition in that department as well, belting out shouts and yells, as earlier stated.

The drums and bass doesn't stand out in any particular way. They lay in the background, doing their usual job, which of course is to keep the rhythm going, so that the guitarists can pump out the riffs and shred to their hearts content, while the vocalist can scream until he's got blood in his throat.

As with the vocals, the production also has a more aggressive aspect to it than many other albums in this genre. The music sounds crunchy, and can even remind one of the early typical thrash sound.

So overall, this album is without a doubt one you should be getting, no matter if you're into heavy, speed, or even thrash. It's got great riffs, mind blowing solos, and brilliantly written songs all over! You should do everything you can to get your hands on this one, especially considering the fact that if you buy it now, you also get the "First Strike" EP as well as two songs they recorded in the late 90's.

Highlights: The Rack, Nuns Have No Fun, The Enforcer, Tortured In The Tower

This album is fun as hell. Who says simplicity is bad? Typically when it comes to German speed metal people think of three bands, Helloween, Running Wild, and Blind Guardian; at least with their debuts, they helped define this short lived style that was sweeping throughout Germany in the early to mid 80's. Other acts included early Angel Dust and Stranger but both couldn't get passed the 2nd tier shelf. Warrant here manages to topple both former bands because they seem to retain a little more originality and uniqueness to their sound.

What I mean about that is interestingly enough for being a more obscure release, the production on this album is heavier than any of the previous bands mentioned above and overall better in every aspect. The guitars have a very heavy crunch to them while everything else is fiercely heavy. Overall the mixing is all up in the front and not as distant as say, Blind Guardian's Battalions of Fear. It's all aggressive enough that one wouldn't be too incorrect to label this as thrash at times.

Another great factor is vocalist Jörg Juraschek whom along with the general sound here, wouldn't sound too out of place if he was with an all out thrash band. While some of the lyrics seem mumbled at times and are hard to make out, it's his performance that gives this release a lot of it's edge. His voice is more aggressive than vocalists from the bands previously mentioned and throughout most of this album he sounds pretty pissed off and convincing. For the most part the vocals are spent in an aggressive mid-range with lots of sharp high notes thrown in all over. Unfortunately while dueling with vocals and bass the bass work ends up getting lost in the midst here most of the time. It's generally hard to make out at times and this is sadly the case with the drums too. Other than "just being there" both instruments don't make much of an impact and can be pretty static throughout. Regardless of these minor scratches, the entire album is dominated by the guitarists Thomas Kleir and Oliver May. The riffs never seem to lose their touch and a good amount of the rhythm's and leads here are insanely catchy. On top of this next to the excellent solo's are the background riffs while solo's are playing, these are often very dynamic, soothing, not played throughout the song already, and you might often notice these even more than the solo's.

While there are a few slower tracks here they've definitely left their more traditional influences from the EP behind, the softer tracks aren't trying to be ballads or anything. The EP is great but Warrant basically took everything they did there and made it even better here. Overall this album is extremely fun to listen to in it's entirety, I never find myself getting bored with it midway in or anything. So the quality and consistency is definitely here. Several tracks here such as Ordeal Of Death, The Enforcer, Torture In The Tower (especially the solo), and Cowards Or Martyrs often have this evil tone and atmosphere to them, really adding to the aggression. The solo on Torture In The Tower sounds like you're trapped in a void falling towards Hell or something. The Rack is by far the catchiest and fastest number here, once you've heard this first track you should know what you're in for with the rest of the album. Beyond this, I have to again stress the fact (as the former reviewers pointed out too) that the solo's on every track here are downright impressive.

As some might tell you this is a "no-frills" album, it's mainly all out and might only appeal to those who truly enjoy the short lived classic German speed metal style of the 80's. Those who really enjoy the over the top debuts from Helloween, Running Wild, Blind Guardian, should definitely check this album out. It's overall more well-rounded than Stranger's debut and Angel Dust's first two (easily). For the modern metal fans who enjoy such bands as Iron Savior, Paragon, and Grave Digger to name a few, could take a step back in time and see where a lot of their influences come from. If you go in not being too critical or cynical about anything, you'll get a fun kickass time out of this one.

One of the more obscure German Speed Metal bands, but one of the better ones for my money. Warrant should appeal to those of you who appreciate the music of early-era Rage, as they exhibit a similar kind of Thrash (but not quite) style. Jorg Jurasheck’s vocals are a bit more subdued than Peavy’s though, but suit the music nonetheless.

There’s also a Walls of Jericho-ness about some of the riffage too, check out the intro riff to ‘Nuns Have no Fun’….yes that really is the title, indeed, if you are a connoisseur of German lyrics like what I am, then you’ll love this album.

“Words like fucking, they don’t wanna know
But deep inside their souls, dirty jokes
Only vibrators can get them high
A risk much too great, God’s waiting inside!”

Awesome stuff, if not quite in the Sodom league of ‘fucking grown-ness’, hehehehehe.

But back to the music. The album opens with an acoustic intro that reminds puts me in mind of recent Destruction, before giving way to a speedy, but simple, riff. The sound is not particularly heavy or aggressive which is why I consider this to be Speed Metal rather than Thrash. If you want Dark Angel style thrash you’d better look elsewhere frankly. No this is kinda like Living Death or something like that (although much better) and with that kind of duga-duga-duga rhythm that Metallica had on Kill ‘em All.

I’m not going to go through every track, because I don’t think the album really warrants that kind of inspection. It’s a style that you will either feel passionate about or think it’s dated and redundant. Having said that, it’s difficult to pick out favourites because looking down the tracklist it’s like, oh that’s a good one, and that one, and that one, and that one!

If you get the NOISE re-issue (the only way on CD I think) you will get the FIRST STRIKE ep as a bonus too, along with two tracks recorded in the late 90’s when Warrant reformed to play a festival. The EP tracks are largely more of the same and very enjoyable, and even the new tracks manage to keep the old spirit alive and are only really distinguishable by the quality of the production.

I guess I really should give a mention to the guitarists, who deliver some nice solos, without descending into Shred-boredom and also the covers, both of which are painted by Phillip Lawvere (I’m pretty sure) and give the albums that authentic 80’s feeling!

Overall then, despite there being nothing particularly spectacular about it, this is well worth a purchase (if you can find it!) if you like your Metal up tempo, with a German accent and infused with a little melody.

If you like German metal from the mid 1980s, you will of course like this one. It's a fine example of the straight-down-the-middle Priest and Accept influenced power/speed approach (as opposed to the harder, faster thrash of Kreator for example), similar to the first Helloween, to some of Tyran Pace's work, maybe even the second Iron Angel and some of Paradox's work. Yeah, in other words it's average speed metal.

Fortunately for us (well, for me anyway) I'm a sucker for speed metal, no matter how average, and this does the trick for me. Especially when it's fast... like so many other bands (Accept comes to mind), the fast stuff just annihilates the midpaced stuff.

The great - The Rack. Oh fuck yeah, the classic speed metal opener. Single-note machine-gun riffage, kinda shrieky vocals, blazing solos. Also, the title track, similar stuff though a bit more epic in scale. Ordeal of Death is another great one - this is the stuff you crank up, loud and proud, knowing full well in your heart that fucking Voivod can be as "pr0gh" as they "w4nt" to be, and all sorts of poseurs will think of them as "l33t", but THIS is what HEAVY FUCKING METAL is truly all about.

The rest... well, it's not bad, but sometimes a bit overlong. Send ya To Hell is the anthemic number which just fails to go anywhere, and Nuns Have no Fun has the cheesiest chorus this side of Breaker (icicle brains).

So, in conclusion, it's no-frills heavy metal, loud and proud. Nothing that'll blow your fucking mind, but in general that's a good thing. Solid headbanging riffage, catchy songwriting, and while it's completely the middle of the pack, at least it's in the pack.