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White Baroness - War Chariots
Available now via Primitive Reaction - White Baroness arrive with pedigree and intent, and War Chariots makes that plain within seconds. The lineup’s history of Morgal, Sigon, Devil Moon, Mutant Sex Demon, Nocturnal Mass, suggests chaos, excess, and a particular Finnish strain of black metal mania. What the album delivers is not a rehash of any prior project but a concentrated distillation of everything these players know how to weaponise. It’s fast, disciplined, and edged with a melodic sensibility that never softens the impact.
The record frames its attack through speed, but not the blind sprint Morgal once favored. The opener, “Lonely Cold Grave,” sets the album’s terms with high tempo drumming, serrated vocals, riffs that snap between black metal and thrash curvature, and sudden flashes of keyboard that give the music a cold, vaulted resonance. “Melindra’s Blood” pushes harder, its thrash undercurrent locked beneath a Marduk leaning tremolo blur. The through line is precision. No one here is coasting on atmosphere, the tightness is the point.
White Baroness use melodicism like a tripwire. “Spiritual Assassin” threads a Dissection styled chill through an otherwise hostile framework. “Six Banners of Satan” veers into a brief heavy metal swagger before tightening again, reminding you these players understand hooks as well as havoc. “Lich’s Spear” and “Guillotine” drive the album’s thesis home with relentless pace, frenzied drums, and riffs that stay catchy even when pushed to the brink.
The organs matter. They appear sparingly, but their presence shadows the record with something vampiric and archaic, widening the atmosphere without dragging the material toward theatrics. It deepens the album’s South American streak, an echo of that raw, infernal lineage folded into a distinctly Finnish chassis.
War Chariots reads as a debut only on paper. Its confidence, coherence, and clarity of purpose mark it as the product of veterans who know their exact strike angle. The result is a sharp, unrepentant black metal record shaped by speed, melody used as a blade, and musicians who understand danger as craft.
8/10
Words by Fuego Casa
In collaboration with Headbangers Australia