ALBUM REVIEW: Revenge – Warkings
Power metal demands a fair deal of respect. Far from having undergone anything resembling a renaissance period, it stands proudly above sneering elitists with its massive muscles, shining weaponry and ridiculous outfits in its duty to uphold the virtue of simply having fun. With their own set of stupendously fabulous attires, monikers like The Viking and The Crusader and enough talk of fighting and glory to shake a severed head at, WARKINGS remains steadfast in the power metal arena with their sophomore release, Revenge. After a relatively tepid effort in 2018 (Reborn), Revenge is a rise to fighting form – in both reality and within the band’s folklore – with a strong campaign of tight and rampaging bangers that provides a ‘power metal’ level of variety without having to reinvent any wheels on this diligent war machine.
On paper, Revenge shouldn’t be anything to behold with anything greater than a small raise of the eyebrows. It’s 10 tracks, 40-minutes, a strict diet of warfare lyricism and the expected verse-chorus-verse-chorus songwriting ordeal, yet WARKINGS have managed to make this dime-a-dozen formula seem so insatiably attractive. For one, The Tribune (or Georg Neuhauser of SERENITY fame for you deceptive bunch) makes for a great general to lead us through the numerous theatres of war with his exultant war cries. If you haven’t picked up the nearest object and started thrusting it about like a madman when The Tribune is in charge then you’re at the wrong party. It’s his talismanic bellows, fleshed out with occasional draconian bark of infantry, that help propel WARKINGS beyond the pitfall of redundancy whilst giving tracks like Freedom, Maximus or Battle of Marathon some legitimate replay value.
Neuhauser’s stainless steel delivery allows for easy interpretation of the words behind his wails and the results come as a double-edged sword within the band’s arsenal. If we examine the actual ‘ideas’ and the narratives of the tracks then your average part-time history buff is in for a good time. The Tribune trails us through the Battle of Bannockburn (Freedom), between the Germanic woodlands to chronicle the destruction of Varus and his legions (Fight In The Shade) to the Hellenic tale of the Battle of Marathon. The band certainly pitches a good road trip through time but tends to stumble when it comes to putting pen to paper. Power metal isn’t exactly known for its poetic scripture but when you’re making GLORYHAMMER read like Shakespeare with your 50th variant of “we will fight and win *manly shouts*” then something has gone terribly wrong. WARKINGS is just fortunate enough to pack as much bravado and self-awareness for this wound to be non-lethal.
But no warrior is complete without a weapon and, equally, no scripture complete without a healthy assortment of tectonic riffage. Revenge continues its predecessors’ attitude to the number of riffs but remeasures the balance slightly in favour of quality. Resultantly, each stroke of the pick from The Crusader comes harder, filthier, and with greater tendency to manifest itself as a persistent little earworm. Adding to the album’s obvious penchant for scale and splendour is Mr Crusader, who sets the track alight wherever possible with a full-frontal shred assault of the senses. It’s nothing that will put Steve Vai out of business but it keeps the vigour alive in the latter portions of tracks where the constant battle chat may begin to feel tiresome. Staying on the topic of performances, it’d be a crime to neglect the Queen of the Damned – or Melissa Bonny of AD INFINITUM as she’s known on Tuesdays. Mounting the helm beside Neuhauser on Odin’s Sons, her gruff and raspy recoils enriches Revenge’s sense of character with the two vocalists’ chorus harmonies being some of the record’s finest moments.
So does Revenge do anything new? No. But does it do what it does best? Absolutely. It may be a simple hack and slash affair on paper for WARKINGS‘ sophomore effort, but the finer details and tender-loving touches make for a valiant blow in the fight for identity in what is a vast and homogeneous battlefield. WARKINGS will likely return with more of the same in the coming years but if having fun is something you tend to enjoy then that may not be such a bad thing.
Rating: 8/10
Revenge is out now via Napalm Records.
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