Live: Warbeast/Project Armageddon

WALTER’S ON WASHINGTON — 2/13/2010: “Mutha Fuckin’ Kings of Thrash.” That’s the moniker that Warbeast should start billing themselves as. This band of Texas thrash luminaries walked into Walter’s and laid waste to all in attendance. Formerly known as Texas Metal Alliance, the band was formed to help another Texas metal legend out for a couple of charity shows, but after playing together a couple of times they decided to make it permanent. Thank God for that. Warbeast consists of singer Bruce Corbit (ex-Rigor Mortis), guitarists Rick Perry and Scott Shelby (both ex-Gammacide), Alan Bovee (ex-Gammacide), and new drummer Joe Gonzalez (ex-Demonseeds), and the band members’ combination of veteran experience and youthful energy that makes this band so special.

There are now a plethora of bands claiming that what they are playing is “thrash metal,” but upon listening to Warbeast’s set, you know who’s really playing thrash. The band came out and destroyed from the get-go. Armed with the tools of the trade — a B.C. Rich and a Jackson — the leather vest-adorned guitarists cranked out a sound that echoed the start of the apocalypse. The band played an hour-long set that drew the crowd into a mosh-pitting frenzy that left all in a sweaty mess. Warbeast will be releasing their debut album on Housecore Records, the label owned by Phil Anselmo.

Local doom trio Project Armageddon went just ahead of Warbeast. The Houston band showcased their style of slow, dirge-y metal that could be best describes as what the the last gasps of humanity would sound like after the End Times: slow, brutal, and devastating. Project Armageddon is a step above most of their contemporaries by virtue of eschewing the trappings of their genre. Many doom band get stuck in playing the same atmospheric, sludgy riff over and over again until it loses all power. Project Armageddon, though, was able to avoid that by riding passages out to the edge of monotony. The band was celebrating the release of their new CD, Departure. END