This 5 track EP is the third release by Polish quartet Thunderwar and its rapid no-nonsense songs get to the point with minimal fuss.

Opening title track “Wolfpack” has Kamil “Madness” Mandes’s raspy vocals spat out over Paweł “Pavulon” Jaroszewicz’s fast drumming, while Witold Ustapiuk’s lead is far more airy than you’d expect considering his and Maciej “Olszak” Olszewski’s buzz saw sounding guitar riffs.

“Woodland Spirit” sounds slightly fuller with Mandes’s bass being more audible at the slower rhythm emphasised by the sharp snap of the snare.

Clean guitars and tapped cymbals build to a solid riff over heavier drum fills on “Circle of Runes” before the shouted rasping vocals come in, but it’s the extremely harmonic choral chorus that reminds me a little of the last Bathory albums, before the very Death inspired vocal cadence returns for the verses.

A very 80s-sounding riff opens “Thunderer” before the quick but simple drum pattern rushes the song headlong to its very dated conclusion.

They finish the EP with a  Darkthrone cover “The Winds They Called the Dungeon Shaker”, which as I’ve not heard the original cannot compare, that’s got an aggressive flavour to the drawn out Obituary style growls over a rather straight forward and therefore monotonous tempo.

The short 22 minute EP gives a very brief glimpse into the band, but doesn’t allow them to expand their sound much, but then again perhaps they do not do so on a longer album either.

(6/10  Marco Gaminara)

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