Review by Vladimir on December 15, 2023.

Are you hungry for some rock and roll? Do you feel the need for speed? Well, I’ve got just the album that you need boys and girls. For today’s review, I will be covering the Swedish heavy metal/hard rock band Warhawk, and their second full-length album Dambuster, released on August 4th, 2023 via Cimex Records. Without wasting any time, let’s start the engines rolling and get straight into it! 

The output of Warhawk is a very rock and roll driven heavy metal that contains the musical DNA of Motorhead, with guitar playing that is quite reminiscent of Eddie Fast Clarke’s style and the drumming in Philthy Animal Taylor’s style, whereas the vocals have a really dirty and aggressive singing style that reminds me of Tony “Demolition Man” Dolan of Atomkraft and Venom Inc. The general approach that every song has is oriented towards that filthy and devilish rock and roll with a punk-like attitude that really wants to wreck everything apart, with the standard length of every song being around 3 minutes or maybe less (the only exception being the final track 'Hawks Of War'). Each song has this heavy uplifting spirit that pumps your adrenaline from start to finish, from the fast riffs all the way down the raw guitar solos, and the great thing is that it transcends a very oldschool energy that really gets you going. The stylistic consistency of this album does not slow down at any given moment all the way throughout, even when it reaches the final banger song 'Hawk Of War' that is a brilliant album closer and a grand pay off which speaks in high volumes that it was worth it baby. The songwriting is fairly simple and energetic, which is perhaps one of the biggest highlights of the entire album that really gives it its special charm to captivate you from the very moment you press “Play”. Warhawk may be dabbling in oldschool heavy metal and overdriven hard rock, but what is also very evident is that they obviously graduated the school of rock and roll from the ages of old, which would even make Lemmy proud. I really love the album art as well, which reminded me a lot of the 70’s band Budgie who had hawks on their album’s cover art, and I think that the cover art for Dambuster wonderfully captures the essence of Warhawk’s music. The production is also damn great, where every bit of instrumental and vocal performance is simply top-notch. 

Dambuster is probably one of the most badass and greatest rock and roll performances put on album this year, and I am glad that I got to hear it right before the end of 2023. I always said that so many excellent bands are coming from Sweden, and Warhawk is no exception, especially not after releasing a banger of an album such as this. Fans of oldschool heavy metal, especially the kind with a lot of devilish rock and roll, will definitely pick up this album and blast it at full volume, because that is how the lads of Warhawk would demand of all you maniacs out there. 

Rating: 8.9 out of 10