Lair of the Minotaur- War Metal Battle Master

Artist: Lair of the Minotaur
Album: War Metal Battle Master
Label: Southern Lord

Blasting their way out of Chicago, Lair of the Minotaur's newest release "War Metal Battle Master" lives up to it's title and then some. Signed to Southern Lord Recordings, Lair of the Minotaur play their own style of extreme metal that can't be confined to only one or two genres. Comprised of three members, Steven Rathbone, Donald Barraca and Chris Wozniak work together to create a wall of brutality. Steve's vocals are varied, ranging from hardcore to death and even black metal in style. Backing up Steve's downtuned mix of Sabbath inspired riffs and thrash metal bursts are Don on bass and Chris on drums creating a pummeling bottom end. I found the lyrics interesting as Rathbone savagely belted out songs dealing with Greek mythology, violent and bloody battles and the prophesied end of the world. Everything from the Ismenian dragon, ice giants, Zeus, Kretheus, Pholos and Bacchus is covered over these eight tracks and it's way better listening to these guys teach Greek mythology than it ever was for me to learn about it in school. As with all Southern Lord releases, the booklet included with this album is huge and has some awesome artwork by Jeremy Mohler. This is the first time I have ever been actually able to sit down and listen to a complete Lair of the Minotaur album and it has definitely opened my eyes. I'm looking forward to listening to the earlier releases from them and ashamed that I haven't checked them out before. I'm sure fans of LotM will like this album and just about everyone else who gains pleasure from their ear drums bleeding. I know I did!