Across all borders they ride in waves of concrete-fed maw and fiery lead spray, flexing steel as if flesh as the great tormentor aligned within Denver, Colorado-based black-thrash quartet WEAPÖNIZER fuels its hunger with the shreds of chains that bind on this long-awaited third full-length album. Wrought with the blister-bursting witching speed their troupe’ve long been known for ‘The Steel Beast‘ reintroduces these folks’ high intensity personage after a nigh decade-long span of silence. Without missing a beat their brand of black-thrashing speed n’ roll action emerges rowdier than ever as they haul ass in return.

Weapönizer spawned from the accursed wasteland circa 2009 by way of a trio of folks with links to death metal band Carrion Crawler past and Nekrofilth in the present. Beyond a demo and a few live tapes afterward the band’s style appeared as a response to the connections made between early speed metal, black metal and the spastic violence of metalpunk as they veered between nods to Venom and D.R.I. on the blasting black-thrashing rawness of their debut LP (‘Weapönizer‘, 2012). If a band like Midnight were becoming the popular standard at the time then these folks presented a far uglier, heavier thrashing blaze of violence by comparison and that attack only intensified on their more polished-up 20 Buck Spin released follow-up (‘Lawless Age‘, 2017). Most every trait you could pluck from those first two records persists within the band’s efforts on ‘The Steel Beast‘ despite the nearly ten year gap between releases.

‘The Steel Beast‘ retains the loud, shoulders-hiked slash of speed n’ snarl that’d characterized Weapönizer releases prior, they’re rushing up on the listener from the first crack of opener “Witch Serpent”, but here the band seem to have pulled back toward slightly shorter pieces on average and dipped into some of the punkish circa ’79 jets found on their debut. Side B is more heavily infested with shorter pieces overall whereas the first salvo of ~4-5 pieces feature busier and slightly longer compositions such as the many-legged opener mentioned and the Sodom-esque barge through “Engines”. The D-Day themed “Victory” probably stands out most outright per its blackened Motör n’ roll ride but either way it is clear they’ve front-loaded the album with their best pieces, or, at least their strongest showing of variety overall.

The best parts of ‘The Steel Beast‘ generally lock heavier into thrash metal sluice be it the quick burn through “The Living Wake” or the flogging trample of “Empire of Ash” their songcraft appears most comfortable and confidant when ripping through. In this sense their approach is no less comparable to say, Nocturnal Breed in spirit but the total ratio of black metal aggression to heavy metal is less fixed this time around. Fleet movements from song to song avoid getting stuck in one mode, such as the growling black metal dominated thrust of “Beneath the Hammer” and its passage into the hardcore punk fueled standout “The Masque” demonstrates the range these folks bring to the overly familiar sub-genre fusion at hand.

While it isn’t a rehash of ‘Lawless Age‘ you won’t find the wheel reinvented on ‘The Steel Beast‘ but instead find Weapönizer at their most capable, tightened in performance and admirably using that freshly heightened standard to access diabolic aggression rather than trope-driven tunefulness. It sustains the band’s unique voice while still managing to be a neck snapping thrill to rip through, especially if you’re a black/thrash enjoyer who’d stuck around beyond the great drought of ~2019. If I had to pick one record from these guys as my go-to it’d be an easy choice as this third assault covers the most bases in their ouevre and does it all without filler or fumble. A moderately high recommendation.

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