WORLD ON ALERT  is a musical project out of Montreal, Canada, lead by Gino LaPosta and multiple guests. This is a five song self-titled ep of doom and gloom metal crossing over into thrash. At times WORLD ON ALERT harnesses Black Sabbath vibes. At other times, they kick it up and thrash it out. Thematically, these songs deal with overcoming oppression, whether it’s dealing with outside forces, self imposed, or illness. “Freedom in Disguise” is a very heavy doom and gloom feel that reminds me of an amped up Sabbath. This song hits the right notes to be heavy without being super fast, but at the same time, not being too slow and doomy. For “Freedom in Disguise” the vocals are belted out and would work for a thrash style song, but here, the vocals here could be more on the melodic side.

“Insecurities” does as the name suggests, deals with a person's anxieties. Starting with a slow bass riff, before building to fast heavy guitars. There is some real good lead work on this. “Alone With My Thoughts” also deals with the same theme. It also starts slow and builds up the pace. It begins with piano and keyboard orchestration that blends nicely with rest of the band. Both these songs are sung by Justyn Vynn and the vocals work well. They are not screaming nor high pitched, but fit nicely for the songs. “They Came From the Pleiades” is an eight minute instrumental. It starts off well with good heavy rhythms on the guitars. While it seems they like to show off their prog influences here, the song starts to drag and should easily be cut in half. “The War Inside” is the heaviest on the EP, bordering on thrash. The vocals work well on this one, belting out understandable lyrics and not going for the growling vocals found in real hardcore. The guitars come off with good complicated riffs providing interesting rhythms.

WORLD ON ALERT mixes a lot of influences together, from Black Sabbath, Slayer, to Rush and Dream Theater. This album is not quite a metal masterpiece, but is a good first effort and it would be interesting to see what more WORLD ON ALERT can do, down the road.