Since the coming of the so-called Old School invasion on the beginning of the last decade, many names arose trying to use the past to breed music. Some say "we are the heirs of the past, and we are giving continuity to the musical works of the elders", what sounds like a joke, for what is done is done, and none can give continuity to others works'. No one can be a new HELLHAMMER, no one can bring back what SLAYER did on "Show No Mercy" times, for it's a matter of time, a matter that they already did it and left it behind, and the most important feature of all: it's their works, not of anyone else. But if the bands lack a personality, it's not a sin to hear and like "their" music. And North American trio BLACK MASS gives the fans a good work on "Warlust".

Their music sounds like a mix between German Thrash Metal from the years between 1984 and 1986 (when the genre was aggressive and filth than it would be just a year before) with some nasty influences from MOTORHEAD. It's a kind of music that everyone heard again and again many times, and even in a better shape than what they present. They lack something personal, indeed, but the energy and good arrangements of their songs are facts that can't be denied.

One thing that can't be understood in this mania to sound as raw and dirty as it used to be on the first half of the 80's. In this moldy way, a sound quality would prevent the bands to reach their full potential. And even with "Warlust" sounding extremely raw, it could be better. Once more the same tip: call Joel Grind to mix and master your work, guys, because he understands how to sound organic and clean at the same time (and before someone could say something about the repetition of this tip to bands like BLACK MASS, it's recommended to hear the good work of TOXIC HOLOCAUST and many other bands that he works with, and this writer is not a personal friend of him).

Once more: it's nothing that DESTRUCTION, SODOM and many others didn't on their earlier works, but the high peaks of adrenaline on "Warlust" (good guitar riffs), the Thrashing fury of "Programmable Life Forms" (it sounds like MOTORHEAD playing a Black/Thrash song), the filthy Hardcore touch on "Graveyard Rock" and on "Hellhounds", and the slow parts of "Bible Stomp" can be said as the moments that makes the listening of "Warlust" worthy. They have talent and really can do something better, but a better sound quality and showing more personality are the right tips for BLACK MASS.