Review: WHIPSTRIKER “Merciless Artillery”

WHIPSTRIKER “Merciless Artillery”
Hells Headbangers records

Over the past decade, Brazil’s Whipstriker have released a prodigious amount of material that would make the vast majority of bands hang their heads in shame. Since unleashing their debut Crude Rock N Roll in 2010, the band have released EPs, singles, splits (with bands such as Slaughter Command, Atomic Roar, Iron Fist and Power From Hell amongst many others) and of course,  full length albums, of which, Merciless Artillery is their latest release and their first on the well respected and home of so many quality releases, Hells Headbangers which is a perfect fit for Whipstrikers music.

Sonically, the bands aggressive take on speed metal with a massive street punk and raw rock n roll edge is a force to be reckoned with bands like Venom, Motörhead, Discharge, Sodom and Bathory all massive influences on Whipstriker and this certainly shows on Merciless Artillery. As soon as the albums opening title track blasts into action, this is a nonstop barrage of full-on metal Armageddon that flies by in a hurricane of shredded riffs, thumping bass and precise, machine gun drumming that will be heaven for fans of raw and in your face metal. Songs on the album like Calm After Destruction, Warspell and Bestial Hurricane are relentless in their ferocity with frontman Whipstrikers raw vocals sounding like hell incarnate and others like Mantas Black Mass and Soldier Of Sodom make no bones about the bands influences with the darkness of their metal vortex.

The raw production on Merciless Artillery only adds to the overall vibe of the album (and this was handled by Leon Necromaniac from kindred spirits Apokalyptic Raids, another band who have done a split 7″ with Whipstriker who captures the band perfectly) and the mastering by Toxic Holocausts Joel Grind adds his magic to the albums sound and the results are formidable.

Merciless Artillery is a welcome and worthy addition to Whipstrikers catalogue of music and on this album they sound rawer, angrier and above all more focused on their apocalyptic sound with spectacular results and going by the bands past output, it won’t be long until their is an outpouring of new music from Whipstriker, until then though, let Merciless Artillery destroy your head with its punked up speed metal assault.