Band:	No Remorse No Retreat
Album:	Warbringer
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	November 01, 2009
A review by:	Bas

01. Will Of Iron
02. Warbringer
03. Fight Or Die
04. This Means War
05. We March
06. Heroes Never Die
07. Underworld
08. Let The Battle Begin
09. War Age
10. When Tomorrow Comes

After To Glory We Ride almost exactly a year ago, Warbringer is the second album of self-proclaimed "battle metal" band No Remorse No Retreat. I can't tell you who's behind this five-piece outfit from Wales as both band and label keep the members identities a secret. The official biography is rather sparing as well and runs as follows:

"No Remorse No Retreat rose from the ashes guided by the spirits of the fallen. Now the horde march to war! Wielding Gibsons like modern day axes and armed with mesa-boogie rectifiers, the onslaught has begun! Resistance is futile! Nothing stands in the way!
Bring your eardrums to the slaughter and perish in the noise, the fire and the fury!"

While the attitude seems rather Manowar-esque (luckily without band-photos sporting nothing but loincloths), the music isn't completely unsimilar either. NWOBHM goes dirty seems to be the motto and as such the band sounds like a raw, thrashy and dirty version of heavy metal from the isle. Lyrically the song titles should give you a perfectly clear picture of what these guys sing about, especially as some of the titles are repeated forty-something times throughout the respective track.

Not only text-wise but also musically this isn't the band you want to listen to if originality is your thing. While the massively down-tuned guitar work doesn't sound bad at all, it doesn't sound unfamiliar either, what does give their sound something like a personal stamp is the very rough vocal approach. As for the songwriting; I'll just say it's all being kept a little bit too simple for my tastes. The raw oldschool production on the other hand is great and compliments the album perfectly.

Warbringer isn't a bad album per se, actually it has a few moments where it really shines. But in the end it's lack of innovation and diversity makes it forgettable and an album only to be fully enjoyed by hardcore fans of the genre.