With a title like this, it would take some level of ineptitude not to guess what this album sounds like. The only fear from such a title is that it will either be campy hipster metal or that it cannot possibly be awesome enough to live up to such a lofty title. Previous releases from Lair of the Minotaur rule out the former worry instantly, and only seconds of listening prove the latter completely unfounded.
This is the sort of album Slayer should have made after Seasons in the Abyss, something with actual muscle, tendons and blood; something with a bit of fire in its belly. I can imagine Kerry King sitting down listening to this wondering why he did not come up with these riffs and solos himself. Lair of the Minotaur’s debt to classic thrash metal has always been more than obvious but on War Metal Battle Master they have honed their trade to a fine blade of razor sharp metal. Indeed, the sounds are incorporated during the intro to the title track, the clash of steel and the sound of medieval warfare providing a perfect backdrop for the musical assault that the group mount on the listener.
The album continues relentlessly with songs like “When the Ice Giants Slayed All” and “Assassins of the Cursed Mist,” sounding like runaway combine harvesters, mincing everything in their path. All the musical elements sound perfect, the drumming sounds like thunder and the bass sounds like rumblings from hell. The vocals are superb; Steven Rathbone’s roar is getting more feral with each album and his clean delivery sounding like a Spartan general giving commands on the battlefield. Everything comes together to resemble the soundtrack of an army conquering the world. It is immense.
Aside from Celtic Frost’s short lived comeback, there was nothing thrash related remotely worth speaking about aside from Lair of the Minotaur. For better and for worse, this is still the case. While I’d love a proper thrash revival, I’m glad that the market is not saturated with weak imitations of metal at its most glorious. War Metal Battle Master may sound like a ridiculous character title from a roleplaying game, but it is a beast of an album that keeps my faith in real metal alive and fighting.
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