Album Review: Warfield – With The Old Breed (Napalm Records)

Carl Fisher 3 min read

German thrash three-piece Warfield are back with their brand-new album, the unstoppable inferno that is ‘With the Old Breed’, out April 4th, 2025, via Napalm Records. An album that sees Warfield explore the unembellished and emotional depiction of societal, historical, social and internal wars – expressing criticism of the bitter part of reality.

Photo Credit: Salina Damer

A staggering step up in all departments for Warfield, this new album has the band sounding tighter and stronger than ever. All because they’ve focused their sound, experimented with different elements within the faster and heavier genres, removed the egregious rawness of earlier releases, but not lost the spirit of thrash metal in any way. The end result is an album that screams in your face on first listen, but the more time spent with it, the more layers are uncovered, least of all an impressive level of detail around war. Albeit from a unique angle that makes for a deeper listen overall.

It’s all about the speed at first though, from every aspect of the band. Manic guitars, drums, and vocals; combining to make an absolute cacophony of noise with Melting Mass and Appetitive Aggression. Both tracks bring the fire and are all the proof anyone will that need that Warfield have advanced their sound. The latter of these two tracks, all because of the riffs and vocal delivery, is a personal favourite.

Although I’m also a bit into the following Soul Conqueror as well. All because this one grooves like f**k. It’s also got one of the more thought-provoking subjects as Warfield explore the aftermath of conflict. The head will be banging hard, but that’s decisively assured as even more thrashy goodness comes with mighty aplomb via the explosive Fragmentation (those gang shouts are immense) and the feral intensity of Lament of the White Realm. The creative development of Warfield couldn’t be more on show here.

The tempo shift for Tie the Rope comes at an inspired point in the album, Warfield flexing some of their ‘blacker’ and ‘deathier’ muscles with an absolutely evil sounding banger. Although, watch out as this one has plenty of vigorous trashiness about it too.

It’s so clever, and so damn addictive. Rarely do you get the extreme side of metal being as infectious as this, but that’s the record that Warfield have created here. Hitting even more impressive highs with Inhibition Atrophy and Dogs for Defence, a pair of feral efforts. Before along comes GASP to change the tone, all because it’s longer and more elaborate, and sees Warfield really explore the wider side of thrash metal. This is the most statement making track of the bunch, and true testament to Warfield’s vision.

Yet, it’s not quite done yet as the title track then arrives to blast the mind into pieces one final time. Although if you pick up the vinyl version of the album, you’ll also get to enjoy a raucous version of Nuclear Assault’s F# (Wake Up).

It’s a step up in all areas and the kind of record that will only get better with age, Warfield have delivered greatness here.

Warfield – With the Old Breed Track Listing:

1. Melting Mass
2. Appetitive Aggression
3. Soul Conqueror
4. Fragmentation
5. Lament of the White Realm
6. Tie the Rope
7. Inhibition Atrophy
8. Dogs for Defense
9. GASP
10. With The Old Breed
11. F# (Wake Up) – Nuclear Assault Cover (Vinyl Exclusive Bonus Track)




Links

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Napalm Records

Author

  • Owner/Administrator/Editor/Writer/Interviewer/YouTuber - you name it, I do it. I love gaming, horror movies, and all forms of heavy metal and rock. I'm also a Discworld super-fan and love talking all things Terry Pratchett. Do you wanna party? It's party time!

Warfield - With The Old Breed (Napalm Records)
  • The Final Score - 8.5/10
    8.5/10
8.5/10
Sending
0.0/10
User Review
0/10 (0 votes)