Holy fuck this is brutal! But then, what would you expect from a super-group featuring Chris Reifert (Autopsy, Violation wound etc.), Paul Baayens (Asphyx), Theo van Eekelen (ex-Hail of Bullets) and Bob Bagchus (Soulburn) on a collective mission to create music with “no bullshit compromises of any kind whatsoever”. Formed in 2013, Siege of Power released a split album before falling into an early grave, destined to be forgotten as a footnote in extreme metal’s annals. Then, in 2017, the band was exhumed and the resultant album, warning blast, sees the band deliver 18 tracks (plus two bonus cuts) in just under forty-five minutes. With influences ranging from Carniovore and SOD to Amebix, listeners can expect all the sickness, filth and unhinged brutality that such a collaboration promises.
Opening with the two-minute, migraine-inducing death metal of conquest for what, a track that recalls vintage Obituary thanks to Paul’s tar-thick riffing, the album gets off to a vicious start and things don’t get any easier with the blistering for the pain, a sub-two-minute blast of toxic, punk-infused metal. It’s not all thrash and burn riffing, however, and the doom-laden intro to bulldozing skulls packs a mean punch underpinned by Bob’s earth-shattering drums. Another longer track, Born into hate wastes no time on a preamble, the band getting straight to the gleaming point as Chris delivers his acid-savaged vocals with a demented misanthropy that is vaguely unnerving. Torture lab, as the title implies, is relentless in its savagery whilst uglification is a whirlwind of snatched, punk riffing and blast beats dispatched in just 90 seconds. Trapped and blinded opens to the sound of Chris clearing his throat as the band unleash steel-clad riffs so heavy they threaten to eclipse the sun as you listen, whilst diatribe, at just seventy seconds in length, is so virulent, it threatens a premature and unpleasant demise to all who stand in its path. In stark contrast, the apocalyptic warning blast is a malevolent trudge into Amexbix territory, shot through with a suffocating sense of horror, so much so that the sonic-battering ram of Mushroom cloud altar actually serves to provide a certain respite from the carnage.
With its evil groove, lost and insane would make a perfect single, the band even sneaking in a hint of melody into the chorus whilst no one’s looking. No such concession to the norms and mores of civilisation is made, however, amidst the foetid riffing of bleeding for the cause, a punk nightmare rendered with a grinding malevolence that is palpable. Not that Siege of Power aren’t capable of the occasional surprise. The Maiden-esque intro to escalation ‘til extermination, built around Theo’s velveteen bass gives way to a track that, whilst still heavier than a particularly heavy thing, has a classic rock vibe underpinning its harmonised lead work. Such classicism can’t last, however, and the sense of social injustice that runs through privileged prick is enough to make anyone take a step back. Surely the album’s unofficial title, short fuse is a short-lived paean to a perpetual state of aggression built around a cruelly distorted bass line so unassailably heavy it rattles the speaker cones in their housing. The unreconstructed thrash of violence in the air is a mosh-pit killer built around a gargantuan riff whilst it will never happen cruises on the back of a steely riff that soon gives way to a barrage of percussion and enraged grunts. It leaves the cold room, the album’s lengthiest track at four minutes, to see the album out on a sea of toxic sludge. The album also features two bonus tracks, the megadeth-metts-autopsy death-punk-thrash monster that is servant of nothing and an alternate version of mushroom cloud altar shorn of the lengthy build up and given a more mechanical production job.
With the recording dispatched in just a few hours and lyrics written on the spot, Warning Blast is as intense and brutal as you might imagine, yet there is an intensity and focus that can only come from the players sharing a remarkable chemistry. Every bit the toxic blast of primal metal that you’d want it to be, Warning blast more than makes good on the promise held in the legacy of the band’s members and will have fans of old school death metal in raptures. 9
