Did anyone here already pick up the Warmachine-CD 'The beginning of the end'?
Okay, so the demo of this Canadian band that's been out there for awhile, has about the same songs as this new official release from Lance King's Nightmare Records. But what a damn cool album this is! Traditional power metal structures with loads of melody. The fine arrangements have excellent guitar soloing all the way through without that artificial 'we-had-another-one-but didn't-quite-know-where-to-put-it' feeling. The whole album is on the same high quality level, with stand-out tracks like 'Fate' and 'Eye for an eye', that just flow in a natural headbanging way, without any forced break or silly choruses.
You can hear some Metallica of old ('Ride the lightning'-era) shining through on several occasions, mainly because of mainman/guitarist Joe di Taranto's raspy vocals and excellent interplay of melody and heaviness. Production by Murray Daigle is equally strong, reminiscent of the glory days of Terry Date and Bill Metoyer. That the bass guitar sound is so powerful, is no doubt due to Dave Ellefson's involvement in this project. He has a few guest performances on the album, as have some other people from the Canadian scene (Harry Hess, Ralph Santolla).
If times were different, this would be a downright smasher, released through a major record company (not that they deserve it, mind you) and instantly making waves worldwide. Pity that the patchy artwork and new bandlogo do not stand up to the level of the material on the disc, but, to once again quote Joe Perry's old adagium: Let the music do the talking!
Give it a listen, folks, or better yet: buy it now, so you can shred your Christmas tree with it!
Well, for those of us who are not that fluent in German, I was just asking where to buy the new Warmachine release from 
