Review by Greg on September 26, 2024.

We've all been there, at least once: a band strikes absolute gold with an album, then inevitably fails to recapture whatever made it so great, as if not even they themselves were sure how they did it in the first place. Lightning in a Bottle aims to cover those (usually debut) albums that turned out to be one-time feats for their respective bands.

First formed under the very DC-esque moniker of 'Texas Metal Alliance', Warbeast was a peculiar meeting point for some pretty notable members of the TX metal scene, gathered under the wing of its arguably most renowned exponent, for better or worse (Phil Anselmo and his Housecore Records). Among their ranks, maniacs from cult thrash formations such as Gammacide, Rigor Mortis, and Rotting Corpse immediately catch the eye, though with the icing on the cake provided by then-unknown drummer Joe Gonzalez, formerly in the minor death metal band Demonseed and later appearing alongside Anselmo in the Illegals and the Superjoint one-time revival. Granted, they got their back covered by a label from their very beginnings, but from such veterans, we could expect at the very least a solid, if unoriginal offering in the 'yeah, the 80s were awesome, and here's our unnecessary reminder for you' vein, but worth a couple of headbanging sessions before forgetting it.

Then, in 2010, Krush the Enemy actually came, and... talk about an apt title.

With the possible exception of 'Self Will Run Riot' (which still serves as a showcase for Gonzalez's death metal leanings with those blast beats in the bridge), or maybe a little bit of trimmable fat on 'Stalker', it really is banger after banger from front to end. 'Scorched Earth Policy' is the best song Rigor Mortis never wrote, with Rick Perry somehow beating Kerry King and Darren Travis at their own game in the filthy, squealing solo. Yet, it's no absolute triumph of nostalgia, as proved by 'Born with a Blackened Heart', basically the antithesis to the former track, with its vaguely classy lead interlude, while 'The Controller' and the groovy 'Guardian Angel' are just flat-out brilliant. 'The Plague at Hand' and especially 'Unleashed' provide the most vertiginous accelerations of the album, yet the impression is of a band in total control of the sheer madness it's creating. Okay, I can just cut it off right here, since you can't really go wrong with any track.

Again, one shouldn't be staggered after hearing that veteran musicians in their 50s can play their respective instruments pretty well, but you know how bad this kind of supergroup can go, right? Instead, Perry and his historic partner in crime Scott Shelby may have just been on fire during the recording sessions, because they never give the impression to phone in their performances, not a single instant, and excuse me if that does amaze me. However, the still professional mixing tends to slightly favor the vocals, and having discovered Warbeast thanks to Gammacide (thus, back in those days, completely ignoring the existence of Rigor Mortis) Bruce Corbitt's trademark snarl needed some time to grow on me; in hindsight, though, it's not too different to what already heard on their cult s/t debut, just with less reverb, and the material behind him is so good that it would overcome almost any kind of bad vocalists and still come out as a winner. Of course, with a huge helping hand from the seemingly infinite energy supply of Gonzalez's steamrolling drums.

Unfortunately, maybe also due to some lineup instability (most notably the exit of Rick Perry), Warbeast's following material always seemed to me as more hit or miss. Nothing awful, yet nothing spectacular either. The sophomore Destroy was a textbook case of inconsistency, where filler and classic tracks went arm in arm with no in-between, and it was also marred by an excessively imbalanced production, which makes me suspect they took the title too seriously. Enter the Arena, the final work of the band, solved both the issues (production-wise, only partly) but at the cost of an ultimately lower average quality, ending up being kinda the type of album I hinted at in the first paragraph. The history of Warbeast from then on appeared destined to a cruel end, due to Corbitt's shocking cancer diagnosis, and so unfortunately was, officially leaving Krush the Enemy as the sole modern classic in their discography, among other things.

R.I.P. Bruce Corbitt.

Rating: 8.9 out of 10