Band: WARKUNT
Country: France
Title: Of Ruins and Agony
Label: Great Dane Records
Year: 2018
Style: Death Metal
Review:
I was sure I'm going to get a War Metal (a la Blasphemy, Conqueror and the likes) release here as Warkunt was a totally new name to me and it kind of indicated towards that direction, but I was wrong, the French quitet plays a traditional form of mid-tempo to fast paced Death Metal well composed and calculated, reminding of Bolt Thrower a lot. 8 tracks, half an hour of playing time, and quite diverse compositions each with its own identity and hooks, I'd say I'm impressed by how these guys managed to come up with variety in a genre that usually doesn't leave much space for that. The addition of Punk and Grind influences here and there only sparked things up inhere; we're treated with a festival of headbanging, infectious riffs on a plateau made of upfront, aggressive bass lines and organic sounding pounding drums that sounds supportive and brutal but doesn't steal the show. The main feature, or better said my fave feature, in Warkunt's music are the vocals, I find them excellent, some of the best I've heard in a long time: perfectly understandable growling vocals with a lot of depth slipping into Gore Grind cuffed growls at times, supported by malicious screams in the background here and there. There a lot going on inhere yet the band keeps it all traditional, so it's comforting to see (hear) a refreshed form of old-school Death Metal, and I have the feeling these guys have only scratched the surface of what they can achieve, so first step is to give this album of their a chance, then to keep an eye on the band if you agree with my words.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 8.5/10