Warzaw is a heavy metal band from Norway formed in 2020, releasing their debut album ‘Werewolves On Wheels’ in 2021, and just eleven months later, release their sophomore album ‘Black Magic Satellite’…
…not even enough time for the dust to settle from the tremendous impact of their debut! The shockwaves are still being felt all around the world from ‘Werewolves On Wheels’, and the band’s new album is just gonna make those shockwaves bigger and more prolonged. For ‘Black Magic Satellite’ comes flying at you from a much more melodic metal stance. Eleven hard-hitting songs over a harder-hitting forty-six minutes are gonna make traditional metallers everywhere go weak at the knees. Album opener ‘Santa Mira’ builds with a short intro before all hell breaks loose and we’re off and running at full tilt. It’s like there hasn’t been a gap of eleven months and this is the second part of a double album – the feel and flavour just the same as ‘Werewolves On Wheels’. And why shouldn’t it feel the same?
This is the same fucking band! The red hot scorcher of an opening just gets hotter with the second song ‘Fierce Attitude’. The pace and power is just perfect, the infectious level just right, and the melodious intent is spot on. For metalheads that were in two minds about this band after their debut – they won’t be now. Converts, all of them!
Without a drop in intensity, Warzaw power on with the more mid-tempo and highly melodic ‘Send My Regards’. A bombastic attitude coupled with an explosive rhythm sees ‘Send My Regards’ pummel the senses with an overwhelming exclamation of “wow, this is fucking good”. Yes, it is my friends – and comes highly recommended too. ‘Lightning From The Clear Sky’ maintains the albums relentless pace and power, headbang ability, and sheer attractiveness. The band building on what they achieved eleven months ago – and adding some! The explosive ‘Circular Talk’ is a swaggering rumble of Southern rock-influenced heavy metal. The versatility of the band to incorporate other styles into their soundscape is phenomenal and shows them as very flexible.
‘Circular Talk’ is most definitely a boundary breaker, attracting fans from a range of genres.
And the sound you’d expect from a song titled ‘Machine Gun Fire’ – is spot on. Exploding incendiary devices everywhere as ‘Machine Gun Fire’ gets underway, progressing to become the most melodious offering heard so far. It’s hard to believe that the album is halfway gone already – the magnetism of every song is strong, very strong, and has made time just evaporate. A sign of a great album that, when it can make time seemingly disappear. And what the fuck…! What a cracking injection of power and energy – ‘Where The Bodies Are Buried’ is a phenomenal slice of melodic metal. As attraction goes, you can’t get better than ‘Where The Bodies Are Buried’, the x-factor element is astounding. And for the first time, the intensity and pace do take a back seat, for ‘Shot Of Poison’ comes at you firmly from the hard rock genre. The mid-tempo swagger borders on balladry, but Warzaw are able to remain one step away from falling into the power ballad hole. This is good, for ballads should never appear on a metal album.
Electrifying pace makes an emphatic return, ‘Pistols At Dawn’ a traditional metal romp of the highest calibre. The iconic “foot on the monitor” feel is in full swing, as is the catchy sing-along ability that an in concert crowd are gonna go wild for. ‘Altar Of Pleasure’ is a pleasure – the hard-hitting and heavy kicking nature a sweet spot hitter if ever I felt one! Warzaw has maintained a top drawer intensity for the entire album so far, the infectious level too. And in what seems like no time at all – when in reality forty minutes and ten songs have passed by – we arrive at the eleventh, and final song, ‘Sabres Of Flesh And Blood’. And what a departure from everything that has gone before – such a departure in fact, I began searching the internet to see if Warzaw had covered another bands song! But nothing was found to suggest that – so, ‘Sabres Of Flesh And Blood’ is a knuckle dragger, a very heavy foot-stomping, doom tinted, mid-paced boomer! And a vocal delivery that has more grit, more growl, and more rasp than heard on any of the ten previous songs.
What an unexpected finish, but one hell of a great one.
Overall, a cracking album of full-on and intensely heavy metal, awash with pace, power, and a very mighty infectious level.
TRACKLIST
Santa Mira
Fierce Attitude
Send My Regards
Lightning From The Clear Sky
Circular Talk
Machine Gun Fire
Where The Bodies Are Buried
Shot Of Poison
Pistols At Dawn
Altar Of Pleasure
Sabres Of Flesh And Blood
Warzaw: Facebook
Release Year: 2021
Label: self-released
Category: Album
Country: Norway
Reviewed by Iron Mathew for Frenzy Fire, Metal Gods TV, and Metal-Roos.
