Swedish Thrash Metal bands are usually on the heavier side of the spectrum, with not so much emphasis on what people would term Germanic or Bay Area Thrash. This is quite true in the case of Warfect (formally known as Incoma). Some folks might recognise vocalist/guitarist Fredrik Wester as a former member of Lord Belial and bassist Kristian Martinsson once resided in Bestial Mockery. ‘Creation’ does battle into your speaker system like a relentless fix of Carnal Forge and some heavier aspects of Sacred Mother Tongue, in terms of intensity. Sometime straying into the realms of metalcore riffing and clean vocal lines, I find my self being trapped within this track and subsequently through the full album, there is just something of quality about this album that I cannot put my finger on.
Hatesphere also puts its ugly influence put upon this CD; not a bad thing, it makes it more in-your-face and there is a definite groove to the proceedings. If you want to strip it down for what it is, if you’re a fan of the modern age thrash-type music like Machine Head’s ‘The Blackening’ album or the heavy thrash of The More I See’s first album. Having immensely enjoyed such name drops I find myself, as mentioned earlier, being drawn in by the sweeping fretboard movement and shear energy. It’s a very heavy mixed album. ‘Depicting the Macabre’ as a title track has some modern edge to it, whilst still managing to keep your attention span for the want of finding out where the track will go next.
The aforementioned distinct groove to the album works its cause right through most of the tracks lending themselves to comfortable listening and it can get a little bit predictive in parts where the music will go; the melody, the chord progression, the percussion fills etc. ‘Never to Return’ is a modern grungy vocal in the form of a ballad intro, but them majestically gets a touch of class and heaviness, taken some influence from modern day James Hetfield vocally too. This works well, probably a good start for a single if they ever do them for the MTV/Scuzz TV generation. Even this one has a great melodic guitar utilisation and a powerful, soulful multi-tracked guitar solo (its sounds multi-tracked in places) but this just adds to the atmosphere of the track.
It’s hard to be outstandingly original in this genre, but one thing can be said ‘Warfect’ stay true to their roots and give the listener a very wide ranging aggressive piece of music. This is an album with a modern approach to a modern sound and a highly entertaining listen.
http://www.warfect.com
http://www.myspace.com/warfect
http://www.myspace.com/mykingdommusic
