Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Warmachine - The Beginning of the End - 2006 - Nightmare Records

Track ListingBetrayed Empty Beginning Of The End >mp3 Safe Haven Fate Eternally Forgotten Demise >mp3 Taunted Souls Eye For An Eye Dust To Dust Apocalypse

A varied effort, this one. Warmachine are billed as "melodic power metal," which they certainly are, but also with a heavy dose of thrash when the band is at its best, and they are such on tracks like, "Betrayed," "Empty," and "Taunted Souls." It is on the title track that the bottom falls out and Warmachine tread into bland, mid-paced hard rock that does nothing for me. "Safe Haven" is a fine blend of both ends of the spectrum, with a fast 'n heavy verse and a hook-laden chorus, and then “Fate” and "Eternally," again wade off into Middleville, USA. That is much the story with the rest of The Beginning of the End.. there are ups and there are downs, and there are rare moments that are genuinely exciting.

I am a person that has been listening to metal for… has to be 25 years now. I’ve heard it all, folks. Occasionally, and I mean VERY occasionally, an album comes along that knocks me on my ass, but this isn’t one of them. I’ve heard it before, I’ve heard it heavier, and I’ve heard it better. Maybe I am just a bit too jaded for my own good, but Warmachine do little to wet my whistle and The Beginning of the End sounds to me like a collection of the lame songs off the last handful of Annihilator albums. They can play, the guy can sing, but this is an album fated to drift off into obscurity with little or no waves. That is what happens when you don’t rock the boat.


--Al Kikuras 05.09.07