The Warriors, Genuine Sense of Outrage

On Genuine Sense of Outrage, Oxnard, California’s The Warriors have let the Rage Against The Machine-isms drop (for the most part; there’re occasional throwbacks, like “Life Grows Cold”) by the wayside and have instead focused on straight-ahead metalcore a la Snapcase. Unfortunately for them, they maybe shouldn’t have made the switch.

Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with the music, really — the guitars roar in lockstep like Killswitch Engage or Darkest Hour, the drums and bass pummel and crush, and musically, the whole of Outrage is a nicely-crafted aural assault. On top of it all, vocalist Marshall Lichtenwaldt snarls and screams, thankfully eschewing the death-metal gurgle and spitting venomous lyrics about pain, brutality, and self-reliance (I think, anyway; not having a lyrics sheet kinda hurts). There’re some fine metalcore tracks on here, particularly “Price of Punishment” (more on the reason for that in a minute, though), “Life Grows Cold,” “Your Time Is Near,” and the stomping juggernaut of a song of “New Sun Rising.”

The problem is that there’re so many bands out here doing this type of hardcore-influenced metal that it takes something extra to differentiate a band from the host of sound-alikes out there. The guitars sound awful familiar to anybody vaguely familiar with the metalcore genre, and the vocals sound like they could be off any of a half-dozen Victory releases. I think it’s telling that when guest vocalists Lou Koller and Lemmy Kilmeister pop up on the album (on “Mankind Screams” and “Price of Punishment,” respectively), I find myself sitting up and paying more attention.