WAR//PLAGUE always come a little different each time out. Primal is their fifth release (and the seventh single in the Profane Existence Single Series) and one that shows the Minneapolis quartet stripping away the evolved crust and blackened characteristics of their previous material in favor of a sound that is more, well, primal.
Jamming an airtight metal-punk attack into its hasty descent, this EP is a Triple Lindy dive into ‘80s thrash riff nostalgia. The title track feels like the kind of warm-up songs that bands play to get the kinks out in practice or at the beginning of a set. It’s heavy on mid-paced chugga chugga and light on lyrics. “Just a Punk Song” should be called “Just a Thrash Song,” as it has a bunch of standard metal fills and change-ups that lend it more of a crossover feel than what “punk” as a stand-alone term would normally insinuate. They flesh things out a bit on “The Accursed Throne,” adding some longer instrumental parts that bring to mind their genre-hopping tendencies from 2012’s On A Darker Dawn. Overall though, this EP is pretty straight forward thrash.
As a band that’s been known to write some really politically and environmentally charged songs, WAR//PLAGUE seem to have purposefully dumbed down the lyricism a bit this time around. And that’s A-OK. Sometimes you just need to satisfy that primordial instinct to grunt your way through some headbanging. What Primal lacks in meaning, it adequately makes up for in mosh.
See also
www.warplague.com/
