(written by Islander)
Warlust is the kind of name chosen by a band who want to broadcast that their main interest is sonic violence, without nuance or mercy, wholly devoted to musical experiences that provide the reptile-brain thrills of ugly and unrestrained barbarity.
But it turns out that even a band named Warlust is capable of more than that, and this German band who took that name prove it in spades on their new third album Sol Invictus In Umbrae Satanae, which we’re premiering today in advance of its September 27 release by Dying Victims Productions.
Hell, it even proves they’re capable of… progression (a dirty word in come circles, but not intended as an insult here).
If you journey back and listen to Warlust‘s 2014 debut demo Unholy Attack and follow them through their first two albums, Morbid Execution (2017) and Unearthing Shattered Philosophies (2020), the progression already becomes evident, but even more palpable on their newest full-length – which is brilliant.
In a nutshell, they’ve moved from rough and raw (and slaughtering) black/thrash to a much more multi-faceted, ingeniously diabolical, and – in both the songwriting and sound – a more polished expression of evil in its most magnificent manifestations. (“Polished” isn’t intended as a dirty word either.)
Evil definitely rises up in the looming and fanatical intro track “In Concord & Euphoria“, which doesn’t last long but long enough to create visions of monstrous power and searing delirium, and then Warlust seamlessly launch listeners into “Serpent Crown“, which is an immediate display of what we’ve been trying to explain above.
There, a slowly slithering and miserably wailing melody seizes attention, swirling above rumbling undercurrents, crashing chords, and booming beats. From there Warlust begin jolting like a furious battering ram while creating musical visions of infernal grandeur — and with an electrifying guitar bridge they cut loose in a glorious charge of spiraling leads and hammering percussion.
The vocals channel Cerberus at the gates, through ugly growls, heartless snarls, and extravagant yells, with the guitars exulting behind them and the rhythm section racing in a furious gallop. The music is wild and ravenous, hard-slugging and high-handed, with a channel-shifting guitar solo that sounds like sorcery gone mad.
The whole song sounds like sorcery gone mad, black magic to be sure but magnificent, especially when a dual-guitar solo gleefully cavorts around the rhythm section’s pulse-pounding energies.
And with that you’ll learn that while Warlust are still barbarians at heart, they equally thrive in their crafting of epic melody, in their practice of dynamism, and in their evident fealty to heavy metal of old as well as the gnashing of black-metal teeth as they spur their hell-steeds into a head-long race.
There you’ll also learn that the sound of the rapidly vibrating lead guitars on Sol Invictus In Umbrae Satanae has the polished and piercing clarity of cutting blades, in balance with the primal punch (and noticeable nuances) of the bass and drums, the carving grit of the riffs, and the bestial nastiness of the vocals.
What makes the new album so very fucking good is that Warlust keep doing this from one very good song to another, all the way to the end. They go crazy, they inflict brutal beatings, and they come for your jugular like wolves, but they also repeatedly send hearts and claws high with ravishing melodic spectacles.
It’s really hard not to keep repeating the word “glorious” in commenting on the album, but in the title track Warlust also create more subdued and more haunting mysteries, though the dancing notes of that song still sound like magic, a different and more seductive kind of spell that they use to break up the unfolding of glories.
It should also be said that the glories themselves vary, some more rampantly blood-lusting, others more desperate and even grief-stricken, and still others more stunningly majestic, yet in all the changing manifestations of mood, Warlust are usually operating on a grand and mythic scale. The conflicts are sweeping, and so are the tragedies and triumphs – and frequently you get this kind of emotional range within the same song (“Forgotten Cult of Chronos” being a prime example, but certainly not the only one).
Warlust haven’t jettisoned black/thrash but I’ll be so bold as to say that the black/thrash label doesn’t do them justice anymore, and doesn’t really capture what makes the new album so fantastic. As I’ve read elsewhere, there’s as much classic Dissection and Necrophobic in the music as there is Desaster and Aura Noir, as much “sword and sorcery” as there is devils and hellfire. (You’ll even be surprised by solemn singing in the absolutely spectacular “Legio! Aeterno! Victrix!“.)
There really are no weak links in this album, no “throwaway” songs to pad the track list. You could stab any one of them and come away stabbed, right through the head and heart. They might have even saved the best for last in the long closer, “Black Souls“. Though it’s difficult to pick a “best song” in an album-length cavalcade like this one, it might best display all of Warlust‘s formidable capabilities all at once (it also includes the album’s most completely stunning solo, as well as a beautiful (and still mythic) acoustic-guitar finale that comes right after).
And with that long-winded introduction, now I’ll leave you to what has quickly become one of this writer’s favorite albums of 2024:
WARLUST:
Nuktemeron – Bass, Vocals
Necromancer – Vocals, Guitars
Warmachine – Drums
Aeon – Guitars
Dying Victims is releasing the album on a regular gatefold edition on black vinyl (with poster, sticker, postcard and download code); a special gatefold edition on black/golden vinyl (with poster, sticker, postcard download code and patch); and a CD edition with sticker. Pre-order now!
PRE-ORDER:
https://dyingvictims.com/
https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/sol-invictvs-in-vmbrae-satanae
WARLUST:
https://linktr.ee/warlust
https://www.facebook.com/Warlust666