Wardog's new album, Scorched Earth has a certain heaviness to it, and is definitely very much guitar-oriented. The title track, which comes first on the album has a very Iron Maiden-sounding feel to it. Overall the intricate, fast-alternating guitar riffs and the higher-pitched vocals have a bit of an 80's flair. However, the music is definitely not cheesy or wimpy at all. It is basically very well played uncompromising classic metal. The guitar really stands out with excellent highly technical pounding riffs and solos throughout the album and with an excellent spanish guitar-influenced melodic acoustic passage injected into the mix as well -- look for it in the middle of track 9, "Tomb Of The Slain". The drumming is very potent and very effective as well, a relentless, fast, rhythmic pounding that keeps you locked into the album.
The vocals seem like a cross between Iron Maiden's glorious lead singer of many years Bruce Dickenson and Fight's lead singer Rob Halford. It's sometimes operatic, sometimes gritty and gruff, melodic and powerful singing. The lyrics on this album are quite well-written. There is no obvious single theme, but it seems to me as though our modern society spinning out of control, war (obviously) and wrath toward all those who exibit hypocritical leadership and religious rhetoric as well as tales of personal despair are themes that collectively define the attitude of this album.
For some comic relief, check out track 7, "Bucket O' Beer" which is a ridiculous but kinda cool drinking song. Repeat after me: "All I want is a bucket O' beer and a horny fuckin' woman who knows how to steer (repeat as needed)" with a kind of off-key british punk-style vocal delivery. It's weird, and yeah, as the singer says at the end of the song, "oh that's bad." But besides that the rest of the album remains pretty consistent with stand out tracks like "Killing Speed", and "Tomb of the Slain" which exhibit technical excellence and also manage to kick some serious ass.
In terms of originality, this album takes a lot of inspiration from some of the great metal bands of the 80's like Iron Maiden, Megadeth, and Anthrax. It's still pretty current and pretty heavy though. Just don't expect any Death growls or Black Metal atmosphere here. This is straight-ahead heavy metal.
Overall, I would say that "Scorched Earth" is a very good album. In the late 80's it probably would have blown me away, but I have to admit that since then that straight-forward sound has lost some of its appeal. Within the stylistical range they've set out for themselves, Wardog seem to have carved out a niche as an excellent metal band with superior technical ability. If you like classic metal, then you most likely ought to pick this album up. If you're not familiar with that style and you want to see if you like it, Wardog is a good place to start.
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