The Warriors – Beyond the Noise

Last year The Warriors put out one of my favorite albums that I’ve ever come across, War Is Hell. It was a perfect blend of music to describe exactly what I wanted to hear at the time from the hardcore scene. It was fast, it was technical, and it was brutal and wild all at the same time. I expected nothing less from this album, and when I happened to hear two of their new songs on a Warriors e-card on eulogy recordings, I was scared to hear this album. It’s another release where the band sounds great, but when compared to their older album, it doesn’t really come close. But when it comes to an album like War Is Hell, which had a really big impact on my musical tastes, it’s fairly hard to top.

The Warriors sound on Beyond the Noise is like I said, much different. The vocals have been toned down a lot. Where there was once a dire scream, it has been replaced by a much more mellow scream (still hard, just more in control) and guest vocals on almost every song. The guitar is still frantic and my favorite part of the band. Apparently when the band stared, they didn’t really know how to play there instruments, but that has changed. I’m not a big fan of breakdowns, and this CD has quite a few. But high notes thrown in sporadically, so you never really know when one is coming, unless you’ve heard the songs before, make it up for. Then you most likely will know what’s coming up next. But I digress; there is audible bass in this album. It seems that maybe bands are realizing that their instruments are overpowering and drown out the bass noise. So a little more volume is designated to it, and it pleases me to hear. Then there’s the drummer. For all the time I’ve listened to this band, it has puzzled me whether or not he has a double kick, because the bass drum isn’t tuned to have the same telltale thump that usually gives away the bass drum. It also is not as loud as in many other bands. But the band does sound excellent nonetheless. I feel obligated to rewrite this in here, the lyrics in all the songs are based on the book Siddhartha; which is about a young man trying to find the truth in life, and ultimately finds it in himself. I do have some complaints about this album, besides the major change in vocal style that really shocked me. There are these interludes, unlike interludes on other albums that I’ve heard; these are bizarre synthesized moments of some random beats and strange guitar riffs.

I guess I’d recommend buying this CD. It was very good, but not War Is Hell good. If you really want a good idea of the general change in their sound, I recommend getting a hold of the song Vital-Eyes (its on there myspace) and then compare it to the song Re-Vital-Eyes on Beyond The Noise (It’s a remake or Vital-Eyes). There’s just a general tone down of intensity as I had stated earlier. Beyond The Noise would be an excellent purchase, but I really think that checking out War Is Hell (redux) would be a good idea before anyone gets into this band. Unless you already like The Warriors, and because I know this band has a fairly fanatical fan base, go ahead and buy this, it may disappoint a bit at first, but it will grow on you. It’s what happened to me.