Waking Into Nightmares is the second album of American thrashers Warbringer. Yours truly already reviewed their previous effort, which was an above average thrash album filled with Slayer influences. I was pleased with their debut, but there was enough room for improvement.

 

Waking Into Nightmares starts where they left off with War Without End. Still the Slayer influences are widely present, but there is also more Kreator/Exodus like stuff on this album. There is a bit more room for melody and the riffs are a bit more diverse and well written.

 

Of course it´s still a straightforward thrash album, without any form of experimentation whatsoever. I think that´s fine when you write songs that are well composed, and that´s exactly the case with this album. It´s nothing fancy, but the songs have just the right hooks with the right timing. ´Living In A Whirlwind´ is an excellent example of that. At the right time they throw the chorus in, accompanied by just the right riff to keep it nested in your head. They really made some steps in the songwriting department.