Whoa...someone wake me when this CD stops spinning.
Man what happened to Warlord? In that span of time since Solid State released their self titled EP to now that we finally hold in our hands the anticipated full length, this band got...well boring.
I'll be honest, had it not been for the incredibly strong Christian lyrics, and the kick butt (yet very simple) album cover and the use of the words Foe Hammer (from the Lord of the Rings trilogy) this CD would have received a lower rating. It's too bad too, cause these guys are so on fire for God it's not funny. They've got some good ideas for music but just seem to get much too repetitious in the actual music of the songs.
The songs off the EP were epic, and flowed like nothing else. It feels like the band tried too hard to recapture that, and instead of sounding epic these tracks come off as annoying.
Track one "Internal Combustion" starts off interestingly enough with some strange sounds that make you think you're in for a truly scary song/album...then the guitars come in weak. The vocals are extremely distorted and that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's overdone here. It gives the impression that the vocalist is singing with his head inside a bag of cotton balls. In the later part of the song his vocal style changes to a more spoken style with the same effects and gives the impression that he's just whining.
Track two "Skody's Coming" again starts interestingly enough with what sounds like an old country song being played on a record player and its speed is changing, going from normal to slow. Once again the non-imaginative and very repetitive guitars come sliding in, and we get that mush-mouth vocal style that starts with more of a singing style than screaming as before, and really reminds me of Stavesacre vocals for a bit.
As I said before their lyrics are really good. Each and every song is a very strong Christian song, but good lyrics are not enough to hold this one together.
I could go on track by track, but I feel you get the idea of this album. I do want to make a disclaimer here however. Even though I'm only talking about two tracks I HAVE listened to this entire album several times in formulating my opinion for this review. The bottom line is this music makes me sleepy. I don't dig music that does not energize me, and I don't have a problem sleeping at nights so I don't need the sleep aid. If you don't either, I suggest you stay away.
3.5/10
Other coverage for this album
HM Magazine #79Reviewed by David BixlerIt has finally happened. After much talk of a full length follow-up to Warlord's EP, Rock the Foe Hammer is born. I will start off by saying that I really do not know how to go about describing this CD. It is quite different from anything I have heard before. A lot of the songs are quite epic, with long, drawn-out sections of music, and a lot of the music has a slow yet heavy feel to it. Perhaps…The Phantom Tollbooth 1999Reviewed by Joe RockstrohThe Warlord EP is a favorite of mine, I'll admit. The four songs of doomy hardcore showed great promise for the future. But alas, this promise was not to be fulfilled. The band changed their name to This Fire Within, then changed it back to Warlord one week later, then lost their second guitarist. Finally, Warlord managed to record their debut, Rock the Foe Hammer, but then immediately disbanded,…Similar sounding releases
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