Monthly Archives: April 2012

The killer album artwork for Return to Life by War of Ages. A visual representation of resurrection from death.

After obtaining their highest critical praise yet for their previous album, “Eternal” produced by Tim Lambesis of As I Lay Dying, does Return to Life elevate the band even further?

In a quick word, no it doesn’t. Although I say that as someone who never sat down and listened to Eternal all the way through, having only heard the album as others played it. Everyone I know thought it was their best album yet and absolutely loved it. And what I’ve heard was very good. I actaully own the album but have never sat down and listened to it fully. FOR SHAME.

So take that info for what you will.

“Return to Life” from War of Ages sounds like a “return to form” for the album, and maybe that was partly what inspired the title. This album sounds exactly the way the band used to sound on albums like “Pride of the Wicked”, “Fire From the Tomb” and “Arise & Conquer” (all three of which I own, Eternal was the only album of theirs I never got around to buying; even though I intended to pre-order it). If you loved what you heard on those records, then you are sure to dig “Return to Life”.

Basically their sound is exactly the same on those albums and to my untrained ear sounds exactly like they have always sounded. And to me that makes this album sound as forgettable as their previous releases. To me, while I love me some random War of Ages, I could not name you a single song from past albums if a gun was put to my head. Everything simply blends in with each other and no tracks feel distinctive. While that is not a flaw in and of itself necessarily (it depends on what kind of music you are looking for), I do think it is a knock against the album. It simply means that the album has not elevated them any. I don’t know about you, but I always want my albums to be memorable and to impress, and I didn’t feel that on this album DESPITE a few standout tracks (virtually of them towards the end of the album. The last three all kill it in particular).

In the end, I give the album 6 out of 10 stars. Which means it’s “above average”. Harsh? Maybe… but I feel like it was a disappointing album and I feel like it is a stepback from Eternal. Even though I never sat down and listened to Eternal, that album felt much more distinctive from what I recall. This album almost feels like an album that was recorded with production that wasn’t as high as on Eternal… even though that’s not the case, but that’s the kind of vibe I get. Like I said, a step back.

Having said that, here is my breakdown of each track from “Return to Life” as I listened to them. It’s also important to note that I didn’t have lyrics in my review copy from the publisher, and could not find lyrics ANYWHERE online. I’m bugging the publisher to send them to me, so hopefully they will. Regardless though, I have listened to enough of War of Ages to be able to hear Leroy Hamp’s words and understand them without any real problems. Typically though I will NOT listen to a metal record if I don’t have the lyrics.

Song #1 – Immortal (4:00)
The first track is a powerful opener, although its not until the guitar solo of the song that I really jumped out my seat and found the song amazing. The lyrics are pretty good from what I can tell and I really love the shouting on this track. Overall this is a good song, but it sounds exactly like what you think War of Ages should sound like and nothing more… and I really hesitate to say it is great. As the first half of the song is kinda forgettable. I love the sermon opener though. Read the rest of this entry »