Thrash Metal has had many evolutions over its 3-4 decades of its existence, and in the meanwhile there have been many bands that have brought in more flavor and variety to the art by incorporating style of other genres, like Punk, Hardcore, Death, Black etc. WARFAITH from France tries to incorporate a bit of Punk and Hardcore sound in their music, but do they get it right?

What's most commendable about WARFAITH is that they bring in different influences and try to make their own sound and not get typecast and constricted by genre. Their album "Wise Man Is Dead" starts with a short "Intro" with sharp rhythmic guitar riffs. Then the title track "Wise Man Is Dead" gives a better picture of what's on offer from this new upcoming Thrash band. The song moves like a chugging express train than try to bring any rhythmic sections in it. The music is more reminiscent of modern extreme Death Metal bands due to the pace, and the vocals give the Hardcore or the Punk feel. "Jesus Sucks" gives a fair idea of the lyrical themes on offer here, while the music isn't too different from its preceding song. I don't what to sound flattery and all, but some of the riffs here does have influence of SLAYER and few other old Punkish Thrash bands.

The boys liberate their Punk influence more with "FURIOUS PIG", and the fact that I don't listen too much of real Punk doesn't affect my judgment here as I think the music is more of Thrash than Punk itself. The band seem to try very hard to get the technical part right in the album, and in turn without realizing it has hit the 'feel' part. Let me explain, the chugging style of the songwriting here is felt throughout the album, and not too long it gets monotonous, and the screaming vocals, the riffs, the lyrics just don't make sense anymore. However, the vocals of Max really elevates the music and gives the Punk feel of the music the band ended up getting deliberately or otherwise. "WARSLAVE" arguably has to be the best song on offer here because of its fist thumping and ground breaking sound leading to the anthemic feel of the song (also thanks to the vocals) as a whole. I'm not sure why exactly the rest of the songs fail to give me similar feel, but this sure is a cool song. The album ends with a slightly progressive kind of song in "Redemption", but largely follows the sound of the rest of the album.

While WARFAITH has a good sound, sadly one does wonder if the band is still struggling to find their right sound and full potential, as this just their debut album are just 3 years around. But having said that the production is good, lyrically they seem to hit the bulls eye, but the major problem I have here is while the album does click in phases, majority of the album sounds very similar, and as the album chugs itself, it gets monotonous half way even through. I must however mention that the sound on offer here, itself is good, just the band needs to work on more variety and flavor. This isn't a great album, but these boys have great future!