Make no mistake, this was worth the dollar, although it surprised me how generous the online reviews for it seemed to be--it's good, but not great. Their earlier 7" focused a little more on the black metal side of black thrash, while I'd say the album after this was the opposite. While this first album is much closer to that second album stylistically, I don't think the old school influences are balanced as well. The production puts the drums quite high in the mix and gives the guitars a thickness which lends the whole recording more of a modern black/death metal edge, which I'm not sure that I like. There's a lot of settling into mid-paced tempos here and that brings a strong Motörhead vibe which isn't necessarily unwelcome. Sometimes it works ("HellSlut"), but it doesn't always mesh well with the aforementioned elements. The drummer seems like he would be a better fit in a less oldschool-leaning band where he can blast more. I think simpler drumming pushed farther back in the mix would have suited this a lot better.
I'm very confused about people claiming to hear any distinct Hellhammer, Bathory, or Kreator influences in this. I do hear some Destruction influences here and there, mostly in the guitarwork--the Infernal Overkill-esque riff in "The Fire of Our Wrath," the solo in "Black Mass Ritual," and then those overly enunciated syllable-by-syallable vocals in "1665" remind me of the "Insane brain..." part of "Confound Games." I don't hear any direct connections to old Sodom as some online reviewers have mentioned. Ironically, the Sodom album this reminds me of the most is Genesis XIX, which of course came out years after this. The second half of "The Damned" felt like it might have been influenced by something gallopy from Show No Mercy (I'm specifically thinking part of "Face the Slayer").
"The Fire of Our Wrath," "Vengeance from Hell," and "The Damned" were worth hearing, while the rest of the CD is decent but not essential listening. A bit of a shame it doesn't feel as old school as an overall album as some of its constituent parts. I must stress again that Warfist's second album Metal to the Bone improves on this tremendously.
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