{"id":75000,"date":"2018-09-14T00:00:02","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T00:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=75000"},"modified":"2018-12-27T14:56:58","modified_gmt":"2018-12-27T14:56:58","slug":"album-review-cultural-warfare-warmageddon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-cultural-warfare-warmageddon\/","title":{"rendered":"CULTURAL WARFARE – Warmageddon (2018) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

CULTURAL WARFARE
Warmageddon<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nM-Theory Audio (2018)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Warmageddon<\/em> is the debut assault from California thrashers Cultural Warfare, and if you\u2019re looking for gnarly, measured and sneering heaps of hot chugging metal, then you\u2019ve come to the right place.<\/p>\n

Although not essentially nostalgic, much of this slightly overlong album does remind me of Metal Church; the crunchy yet melodic sound and the snarling vocals will be right up the street of anyone who likes that potent mix of thrash and power metal, and so Warmageddon<\/em> should appeal to many.<\/p>\n

Yep, these guys will be called a Bay Area act, but there\u2019s more to their sound than just crunchy speed. In fact, the album is riddled with slower tempos that groove nicely in a mid-90s fashion. The title track is symbolic of that, with some excellent leads squirming through the mechanic haze. But for me, the bony percussion of Bones Padilla and brain-busting bass of Pete Aguilar are the stars here \u2013 both producing high levels of energy and revolving steel to accompany the excellent guitar work of Billy Garoutte and Kevin Doughty, and no frills yet effective vocal scowls of Jacques Serrano.<\/p>\n

All tracks are tidily produced, but sometimes just a smite long as with the title cut, \u2018Divided We Crawl\u2019, \u2018Two Spirits\u2019 and \u2018Politikill\u2019. At times my attention tends to drift, but that\u2019s not say that this is an uneventful album. Cultural Warfare plies its trade by serving up hard-hitting, straight-up muscular metal delivered with pace and bereft of gimmicks. Doomier, deeper rolls are occasionally injected (\u2018Divided We Crawl\u2019), showcasing different angles from the band as Gothic hails permeate the grey air, but it\u2019s not just downbeat in its view either.<\/p>\n

At times I hear sneers of, say, Testament at their darkest, while at their most intricate and thoughtful there are hints of Metallica too, particularly with \u2018Eyes Of The Land\u2019 which has an essence of the epic and the majestic about its structuring. With \u2018G.O.D.\u2019, the band embarks onto darker shores, but there\u2019s certainly plenty of speed to savour too. Standout tracks for me are the ferocious \u2018Scars Left Cold\u2019 with snapping pace, while \u2018Politikill\u2019 has an ashen yet steely Teutonic feel.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a strong layer of menace throughout the album which really comes to the fore with another killer tune in the form of \u2018Witches Prayer\u2019, which is one of the darkest moments on the album. However, because the band is essentially Californian, there\u2019s always that chance of being influenced by Slayer<\/a>. I hear that with the excellent \u2018Shadow Priest\u2019, but then again, shades of Kreator leak through too, especially with the pallid melodies and then sudden bursts of cutting speed.<\/p>\n

Warmageddon<\/em> is the musical equivalent of being beaten to death by the bluntest of instruments; each track rampages hard and fast, which is summed up by the hostile expressions of \u2018Blood Machines\u2019 \u2013 arguably the most pissed off track on offer. Any thrash fan that dives into this grinding structure will applaud such venomous servings… if they\u2019ve got any hands left, because Warmageddon<\/em> is sure to reduce your limbs to bloody stumps and your brains to mush.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CULTURAL WARFAREWarmageddon M-Theory Audio (2018)Rating: 8\/10 Warmageddon is the debut assault from California thrashers Cultural Warfare, and if you\u2019re looking for gnarly, measured and sneering heaps of hot chugging metal, then you\u2019ve come to the right place. Although not essentially nostalgic, much of this slightly overlong album does remind me of Metal Church; the crunchy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,4252],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-cultural-warfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75001,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75000\/revisions\/75001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}