Hailing from Italy and bringing us their debut album Warcoe resurrects the old-school doom sounds of Black Sabbath, Pagan Altar, and those who proceeded before. While they may wear their inspiration on their sleeves, the band is still able to capture their own unique sound, with some hard rock melodies, great groove, and an occult atmosphere that hearkens back to the olden days of metal where wizards, heretics, and whores ran wild.
This is an incredibly easy going album to me personally. Hits that right itch of heavy fuzz and hard rockin’ grooves that get that head nodding. Brings me back to my early days experiencing metal. Everyone starts out with the essential classics like Sabbath. Ozzy’s iconic vocals are captured within this band, and that hard rockin’ groove cemented by Sabbath’s American counter-part Pentagram is also there replicated. But these tracks aren’t just old-school worship, there’s a personal touch there from the band, they’re able to create their own sound while still giving credit where credit is due. The grooves are straight forward and as to be expected, but still fun none the less. There are some memorable moments on this album, like the instrumental track Winternaut, with its heavy production and simplistic approach makes for a great power anthem. Or the purely acoustic track Omega Sunrise, a somber and rustic song that really captures the moment and stands out on its own separate from the rest of the album.
Luckily thanks to the catchy song writing, the tracks don’t really get tiresome with their repeating riffs and long track times. Its to be expected of the genre but sometimes it can get a little tiresome hearing the same riff go on for a little bit too long. But thankfully Warcoe is able to skirt around that with keeping the song rolling and lingering around on riffs just enough to keep it groovy. I do wanna mention how the vocals, honestly, make my eyes roll a little. I feel as though sometimes its trying a little bit too hard to mimic Ozzy or Terry Jones from Pagan Altar. I just feel like its trying a little too hard to give it that classic feel and gives the band a rather gimmicky take.
I still found my self enjoying this album. Its simplistic and text book approach to the old-school doom of the 70s and 80s really gives this release a charming approach and its stripped back production and heavy fuzz and catchy song writing makes this listen an enjoyable release that’s great to throw on at parties. Die hard fans of the genre should certainly pick it up.
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