Warrior – Hate Maelstrom

Warrior, not to be confused with any of the other (primarily Heavy Metal-based) eight bands with the same name is, in this case, referring to a Black Metal duo that teamed up back in 2019, released their first Demo the next year and followed by a Full-length the year after that – Finally culminating in Hate Maelstrom, a seven tracks long Full-length spanning thirty-five minutes that saw the light of day earlier this year. 

Musically, it is exactly what it says on the proverbial tin: Black Metal made by the finest traditions honed in their native Sweden, meaning gritty, dirtily mixed (no doubt to recapture some of the glory of the early Black Metal albums), strong punk-inspired simple riffs layered atop a relentless massacre of the drums and as a cherry on top – A low, menacing growl more akin to the missing bass-line than the centerpiece lyrical delivery tends to be. And naturally, being a fan of the old-fashioned approach to this particular genre, I am a fan. 

I do seem to recall having made this statement quite a few times over the years that I have been blessed by writing these for Metal Revolution but bands such as Warrior (this particular incarnation of the name, see above) really do manage to put on their rose-tinted glasses about the past (in this case what Black Metal used to sound like) and use them pro-actively, focusing on all the positive aspects of it, utilizing that information to create a new addition to the genre, even if that happens three decades after the fact. As such Hate Maelstrom is by no means a time capsule of the era since it is neither from the correct time period, nor is it truly representative of what it sounded like at the time since they had the benefit of a massively inflated genre pool to examine and draw inspiration from. And while I do see how that could come across as a criticism, that is by no means my intention. These two musicians have a goal in mind, it has been researched and they have released a Full-length honoring those goals which I found to be both engaging and filled with rebellious energy. As a matter of fact my only real gripe with the release (aside from the relatively short runtime for a Full-length, authentic as it would have been if released on cassette) is the lack of a more coherent, unique sound to make the music their own – Granted, they do not ‘drown out in the masses’ as I often complain is the case when it comes to Black/Death Metal hybrids and I will definitely be looking further into Warrior as a band in the future, but a bit more personality wouldn’t come too far amiss. 

Nevertheless, a strong recommendation from this old-school fan to similar adherents to bands such as 1349, Tsjuder and their kinsmen Watain. 

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