WARHOG is a four-piece metal band from North Texas. Their original music incorporates driving, rhythmic riffs with melodic, storytelling lyrics. Their mission is to write heavy music that is accessible to all audiences. The album has five songs, and “Unleash the Beast” is first. Eerie keys lead off the song, leading to a dystopian sounding riff and mid-tempo pace, with heavy drum strikes. From there, the riff settles into a distinct groove that you can move your head and feet to. The vocals are harmonized in the chorus, and have a snarl to them in the verses. “Future Shock” is another keyboard led song, but the instrument disappears too fast for my liking. Let those keys fly, I say. They are replaced by a straightforward riff and hardened vocals, and some of the melodies are a bit dissonant.

“Hollow” has gentle entering tones, along with thickened bass notes. The vocals drip with emotions of regret, despondence, and even some hopelessness. When someone feels hollow, the really don’t have many feelings at all. Towards the end, there is a nice crescendo of harmonized vocals. “Stewards of a Broken World” further describes some of the despondence on the album, and the lead breaks weep. The riffs however are just a bit too simple. The song sounds like an anthem to me, but a bit of a tired one. “signal_pulse27103_28_057_undefined_anomaly” is the final cut, and it’s a 17 second song that you can barely catch.  This wasn’t a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, it just didn’t elevate much. There were indeed strong elements of songwriting in their music, but they just used one too many riffs that you have heard before, and although the singer has a nice vocal tone, he doesn’t stretch out enough for emotional impact.