Returning with their second satanic assault comes Warcoe creating A Palce for Demons. This Italian doom trio have been keeping the very pure essence of heavy metal alive, creating nostalgic riffs of that akin to Black Sabbath, Pentagram, and Pagan Altar. Its refreshing hearing this old style brought back fresh again in a new modern fitting and done in a way that doesn’t really sully what made doom and overall metal so great in the first place. Heavy riffs, head banging drums, and epic lyrics that conjure morbidly satanic images. Its quite the enjoyable ride.
There’s no holding back with Warcoe, they push what they did in their first album forward, simply getting bigger and better, more clear in their image and idea and certainly more fleshed out musically, being much more comfortable in their sound. The riffs are hard hitting and groovy, and the vocals certainly do have that old school Ozzy imitation appeal, but feels more of an inspiration at times than just a straight copy. What really drives the band is the instrumentation its self. The guitars are rich and deep with a hard edge to them, and the groove the drums blast out just possesses you to headbang along to it. The guitars are very old school and well performed, really takes you back to hearing Iommi do his wildly groovy solos on Paranoid for the first time.
Warcoe is just about as text-book as heavy metal can get and sometimes that’s all you really need. They’re minimalist and straight to the point, not really relying on any gimmicks or wacky imagery, just good solid and especially heavy, metal. There’s a lot one can comment about the current metal scene but these guys are what’s keeping that true soul behind it alive, sort of a reason why the infamous Darkthrone has gone back to using such an old school sound as well, which Warcoe also reminds me of. The production is raw in that pure analog essence like how it was supposed to be recorded, instrument to microphone. Add some fuzz pedals to the guitars and some gnarly riffs and you got your self some hard rocking heavy metal and Warcoe delivers. Any real metal fan would enjoy giving this album a listen, certainly worth checking out.