Battlecross – War Of Will


Battlecross-WarOfWillLet’s give it up for Battlecross. The Michigan band has managed to take a weary template, one that has been overused in recent years, and done something quite interesting with it. Their catchy melody infused hail of battlefield themed metal can sound pastiche from time and time, even cheesy, but Battlecross have cut out a lot of the nonsense with this new album War Of Will (Metal Blade) and simply made a good metal record.

Perhaps War Of Will’s biggest strength is its brevity. The album is a terse and succinct 36 minutes, which is rather short by album standards but surely it’s always better to release a loaded record that’s short instead of a drawn out, bloated snooze of an album, right? Battlecross know this.

Opener ‘Force Fed Lies’ kicks things in brutal fashion, making their modus operandi quite clear as Children Of Bodom features (at their early 2000s prime) collide with faint death metal-isms.

War of Will is aided by a supremely clean production that allows the glistening hook-laden guitar work of tracks like ‘Flesh & Bone’ all the room in the world to expand to grasp the listener’s attention. The guitar work and myriad riffs are truly the centrepiece of War Of Will.

Let’s take ‘Get Over It’ as an example, first exploding with sleek duelling guitars that give way to ferocious and ruthless riffing for the next five minutes, making for the album punishing midway point that let you know Battlecross aren’t letting up any time soon, all topped by quite an unforgettable crescendo.

‘Wage A War’ is a track that sizzles with fretwork that invokes the battlefield, both triumph and the inevitable loss, but always striding forward. The lead work of guitarists Tony Asta and Hiran Deraniyagala really stand out and it becomes rather evident at this point that they’ve earned their chops.

Granted, War of Will isn’t reinventing the wheel or anything and it’s not going to propel Battlecross to superstardom, but they’ve still made a scorching melodic metal record that they can, and should, be very proud of.

8/10

Jonathan Keane

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