Germany’s Evil Warriors may be a new name for many of you, but the black metal band has been honing their craft for close to eleven years now. Their debut full length came out way back in 2011, and now the group has returned with a follow-up titled Fall From Reality. It’s clear that the longer period between releases has been put to good use, as the material pushes out from the usual harsh riffing and blasting towards some sprawling instrumentation that drench the listener in darkness and grime.
Where their previous material emphasized a rawer sound where the guitars and drums dominated, Fall From Reality comes off feeling much more balanced. There’s a fullness to the sound that allows it to spread outwards further than before and completely encompass the listener as they follow along, but the increased amount of clarity hasn’t diminished the overall intensity of the songs. Evil Warriors has a tendency to move back and forth between harsher blasting that brings a number of other European black metal bands to mind and some melodic passages that let additional darkness seep into the recording. One of the big differences that allow this album to stand out is the sense of precision behind the transitions, as each attack feels well calculated and focused. There are elements to the songwriting that are likely to come off as familiar as you make your way through Fall From Reality, but when the riffs are able to provide equal amounts of entrancing melodies and destructive climaxes (not to mention some prominent bass lines) it still works to the band’s advantage.
Guitarist Beast handles the vocal work throughout the album, and he has the type of pitch that stands above the instrumentation with an ominous presence. His pitch stays at around the same general range for much of Fall From Reality, coming through as a raspier scream that adds a considerable amount of grime to the recording. But there’s enough variation to avoid Evil Warriors from falling into repetition, allowing the vocals to provide a powerful performance from beginning to end.
Evil Warriors’ sophomore effort has been a long time coming, but the wait has been worth it. The band has not only expanded their sound outwards towards a fuller sound that provides equal amounts of darkness and destruction, but the songwriting is a bit more sprawling and multifaceted than before. It may encompass a lot of familiar elements when it comes to European black metal in recent memory, but the writing makes this a strong statement. Fall From Reality is out now from War Anthem Records and Into Endless Chaos Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg
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