ALBUM REVIEWS
27
Album reviews
27 ALBUMS 57 ENTERTAINMENT 56 BOOKS & GADGETS
WAR OF AGES ARISE & CONQUER
If you’re looking for a sick record to kick this issue’s review section off with a bang, War of Ages couldn’t have done a better job. From the beginning of the first track, you can only hope the rest of the record could shake a stick at what you’ve just heard – and thank God, it does. Just listening to “All Consuming Fire” would be enough to bring the quality of a normal record way up. But keep listening – just the intro and first riff to “The Deception of Strongholds” could top it. War of Ages, a five-piece outfit from Pennsylvania, manage to bring metal to life again with relentless riffs and sound technical work on their third fulllength release Arise & Conquer. It has everything you could want from a metal band: shredding guitar solos, an incredible drummer, thick breakdowns. But what makes the record so great is what it has that makes a metal band better than the rest: They have an ability to utilize their technical skill in a manner which embraces songwriting. Their music allows the audience to not feel distanced by their skill despite the fact that they are incredible musicians. It’s hard to be a really great guitarist, but being able to combine outstanding technical skill with writing a great song is incredibly hard. But War of Ages have done just that. As each song passed, I looked forward to seeing how they could throw me for a loop one more time. At the end of “Generational Curse” they throw a pounding riff right into a beautiful, sweeping solo, fitting any number of notes into a space I wouldn’t think possible. In “Sleep of Prisoners” they still hit a stride in a mid-song breakdown, filling in empty space with slick fill solos, before moving into a solo most of us could only dream of playing.
Rating system 05 04 03 02 01 *
132_album reviews.indd 1
CLASSIC FABULOUS SOLID SUSPECT AMISS 1/2
Although it’s only halfway through the year, I’d be hard-pressed to find a metal record I’m going to enjoy more than this one in 2008. [FACEDOWN] DAVID STAGG
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5/23/2008 9:24:44 AM