Winds of Plague - Against the World
Cali’s symphonic bruisers are back with another full-length of breakdown-fueled war hymns. Yes, breakdowns, bitch. I love that bands still have the courage to go there even though the RPG gamers and D&D lifers who comprise the Metal press have declared it officially uncool. Winds of Plague, steadily taking pages out of Bleeding Through’s old playbook, can still do it convincingly and the Dimmu Borgiresque keyboards, while not as prominent as on 2009’s The Great Stone War, serve to add another layer to the attack. A lot of people like to give frontman Johnny Plague shit about his ghetto banter. Not to his face, I might add. I’ve recently seen this band live and the vocalist would assuredly give your favorite wrestler or UFC fighter a decent scrap. When he says “I am built for war” and that “evil fucking fears me,” I believe him. If my body was 99.9% muscle, I might run off at the mouth on the mic too. To be honest, it does detract a little from the vibe of the album. Spoken segue, “The Warrior Code,” just doesn’t need to be here. The lyrics of “California” are hard to stomach as well, and I even like a little Rap/Hip-Hop from time to time. It just seems to take the album out of its element. “Winds of Plague, muthafucka, 2011, back in this bitch, runnin’ shit” etc, just aren’t necessary when the music is tight enough to rep itself. In the live setting it’s a different story, but in the studio it can be a moment-ruiner. Still, few bands can help you channel your inner bad-ass better than this without sounding forced or completely fake. Or maybe in my case, all wops just like WOP. Hardest beatings: “One for the Butcher,” and “Drop the Match.”
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