Jukebox:Metal

Warrel Dane - Praises To The War Machine

artist website

publisher

impulse buy

Century Media
Produced by Peter Wichers

Perhaps the hardest thing to do when making a solo album is avoiding making a record which sounds like it could just as well have been the next release by your regular band, in this case Nevermore. This is especially true for the singer.

But what Warrel Dane has done, with ex-Soilwork guitarist Peter Wichers behind the desk as well as handling the guitars and some of the bass, is create something that is both unmistakably heavy metal, and unmistakably Warrel Dane, but sounds almost nothing like the technical thrash of Nevermore. Soilwork’s drummer Dirk Verbeuren and ex-Himsa guitarist Matt Wicklund complete the recording line-up.

Brilliantly heavy and typically haunting, tracks like When We Pray, This Old Man and Let You Down follow a more musically straight-forward approach than Nevermore’s songs, but see Dane exploring many more different vocal styles and melodies around his usual sinister vocal acrobatics.

Indeed Dane openly admits that outside of the technicality of Nevermore he’s always wanted to write a record with someone who takes a more ’song-based’ approach to music, and the idea of working with Wichers has been lingering for several years. The result is something undoubtedly less complex than Nevermore, but more adventurous and, I suspect, a lot more personal to Warrel. The references to wishing he could play God and remove cancer in Brother are perhaps very telling, for instance.

Some special guest lead guitarists complete the record by contributing solos with Nevermore’s Jeff Loomis appearing on Messenger, former Testament player James Murphy on The Day The Rats Went To War and Megadeth’s Chris Broderick on Let You Down. And somehow Dane and Wichers have also been able to perfectly integrate covers of Sisters of Mercy (Lucretia My Reflection) and amazingly Paul Simon (Patterns) into the album as if they were their own.

Warrel has achieved the most difficult task with this album and established himself as a creative force outside of his band, as well as within it. Hopefully he’ll tour this album while Nevermore are taking some time off, because it would be a shame for this music to be confined merely to plastic.

“ unmistakably Warrel Dane ”

Tracklist: When We Pray / Messenger / Obey / Lucretia My Reflection / Let You Down / August / Your Chosen Misery / The Day The Rat Went To War / Brother / Patterns / This Old Man / Equilibrium
Special Edition Bonus Track: Everything Is Fading

Written by Andy Lye
More: Albums, Traditional Heavy Metal, Warrel Dane