Stephen
Hailing from UK, Warpath is one of the most promising bands among young lads that joined the thrash revival wagon. Their hard work earned them many positive appraisals from medias and gained many followers in their homeland and Japan. Like many others, Warpath is one of the disciples of the Big Four, slashing between Slayer and Metallica, and drowned in the riffs-pool of Exodus and Testament.
Less than 40 minutes of running time, Warpath takes you diving into a seas of intense riffs and brutal blasting rhythm. The title track, "Damnation", started off with a tornado wave of galloping beat, roaring loud like a war ensemble, definitely they put a very good start here. "Infernal" continues the pattern and consistently spitting headbanging riffs. 'Hostile Takeover" and "Face To Face" is probably another lesson taken from Slayer, featuring an aggressive stance, dynamically flash-jumped from one chord to another under the heavy-fire of double-pedal assault. Out of 8 tracks here, "Spitting Blood" is probably their weakest and "W.M.D" could have tuned with a slightly different and better riffs otherwise it sounded awfully similar with the other. "Life Unworthy of Life" is also worth to check out if you like "Hostile", and "Expendable Forces" makes a great stop.
Examining the whole album by triple non-stop spins, I can say that Warpath has done a marvelous job but the journey has just begun. They need to re-invent their sound and equipped themselves in the future with a fresh breath of original scent as their identity because "Damnation" is merely a pure nostalgic extension to what the Big Four had done in the 80s, nothing's new at all. For an independent album, the sound production is great, you can hear a dominant bass and guitar mix without sacrificing the others. The vocal part is pretty clear although I think that Goss needs to practice even harder to give a violent touch on his voice because he still doesn't sound "scary" enough for a thrash singer.
For old-school fans, "Damnation" is a great catch, but for thrash fans looking for something they never heard before but still rooted to the classic sound, this record is probably not for you as this is like pulling off the old grass and replant them on a new ground.