Album Review: "God of Zombies" by Warmblood

God of Zombies

Today we peruse the latest release of Lodi, Italy's Warmblood.

There are two things that are immediately noticeable about this band:

1) They're a trio without a bass player. When their bassist quit Warmblood, they decided to continue without him.

2) They're drummer is a female. No disrespect to Jill Janus Huntress or Angela Gossow and Alissa White-Gulz of Arch Enemy, but it's very cool to see a woman in a death metal band who's playing an instrument instead of just singing.

You also won't hear anything from me with the phrase, for a woman in it. Like an athletic team, a band is a group of personalities and you have to find the right ones, but it's really nice when there's more than just white guys playing metal. Body Count is another great fist to that stereotype, but let's focus up again on Warmblood.

Warmblood

Though Warmblood hails from the land of Italy, their sound is completely their own.

This is not Euro Metal, Swedish Metal, Tampa Bay Death Metal, or any other geographical area styled death metal.

The guitars are crunchy. They very much have the modern metal sound. They're a touch thin to my ears, but that's the 5150 sound of the day.

The drums are right there with the guitars and the vocals. It would have been nice if they were a touch higher in the mix, especially for the blast beats.

The guitar solos are very surprising. There is virtually no shredding on this album at all.

The guitars are emotive, complex, and highly melodic. There are no dive bombs, sweep picks, or two handed taps here. It's just pure guitar playing and a great change of pace from the norm.

Not just the leads, but the rhythms are varied as well. Not just the power chord progressions, but surgically precise riffing and mournful arpeggios. This album has it all.

It's dynamic, emotional, and brutal.

Release: 10/27/14
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Spew Records
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