Arise & Conquer is the record where War of Ages, a Christian metalcore band from Erie, Pennsylvania, turned its guitars loose. Facedown Records released it on July 22, 2008. It's ten songs in just under 37 minutes, and it doesn't waste many of them. We give it an 8/10.
How it came together
The band started in 2002 under the name Point Zero. After an early EP, the members renamed themselves War of Ages and signed with Strike First Records, which they reached through friends in xDISCIPLEx A.D., another Erie band. A self-titled debut followed in 2005, then Pride of the Wicked in 2006. In 2007 came Fire from the Tomb, a re-recording of that first album.
So Arise & Conquer is the third studio album, and the first one of mostly new songs since Pride of the Wicked. Leroy Hamp sang. His brother Alex Hamp played drums. Steve Brown played lead guitar, T.J. Alford, who used to be in Mortal Treason, played bass, and Branon Bernatowicz joined on rhythm guitar. Tim Lambesis of As I Lay Dying produced it with Daniel Castleman, and the band recorded at Lambesis's own studio. Dave Quiggle, who had done the art for Pride of the Wicked and Fire from the Tomb, did the artwork again. This time it shows a soldier driving a spear into a dragon.
What you're hearing
All Consuming Fire opens with Hamp screaming the title and one word, "Burn!" Then the drums and the twin guitars come in hard, and the song never lets up. When Faith Turns to Ashes is under two minutes of fast hardcore drumming and muted chugs, and it works almost as an intro to Through the Flames, a song about believers standing their ground against evil. It's built on a pounding double bass intro and big group shouts.
Salvation is where the band shows off. Brown and Bernatowicz open it with a guitar line that sounds like 1980s metal, and there's a solo that sounds lifted from the hair metal days, in the best way. Wages of Sin brings in clean singing, something the band had barely done before. Generational Curse is fast and shreds all the way through. The Awakening had appeared in a rough mix on Fire from the Tomb, and here it's heavier and faster. The closer, The Deception of Strongholds, starts with a single quiet guitar for nearly a minute before a harmonised solo takes over.
The big change from the earlier albums is the sound. The bass and drums sit much higher in the mix, and the lead guitar work leans hard toward Swedish melodic death metal. Breakdowns are still here, but they don't run the show anymore.
What the critics said
Most reviewers called it the band's best record yet. At Jesus Freak Hideout, Fred Keel said it was "probably one of the best hardcore metal albums of 2008" and wrote, "This is the definitive War of Ages." His one complaint was the cover, which he thought looked more like a cartoon than Quiggle's earlier paintings. Josh at Indie Vision Music said it was "hands down their best album yet," praised the new guitarist and named Through the Flames, Salvation and Generational Curse as the standouts.
Erik Thomas at Teeth of the Divine liked it a lot. He praised the "superb, sumptuous guitar work" on the opener and called the album "a stellar if by the numbers example" of melodic death metal and metalcore. He also thought the gang choruses on Through the Flames were a little overdone. Cosmo Lee at Invisible Oranges, who isn't a believer, said it was the band's best to date and wrote, "They've essentially become a Swedish melodic death metal band." Dave Synyard at Exclaim! enjoyed the "cheesy 80s guitar solo" on Salvation and said the album proves that being in this genre "isn't all about being a copycat."
Not everyone heard something new. PunkRockTheory gave it 7.5 out of 10 and said, "They don't play anything you haven't heard before," but called it a very competent album with solid production. A Sputnikmusic user review gave it four out of five and summed it up as "not a new take on metalcore, but an interesting one."
Faith up front
Some Christian bands of that era kept their faith in the background. War of Ages never did. Keel wrote that it had been "a long time since I have heard bold in-your-face Christian lyrics like this in rock music." The opener is a prayer, "Consume me oh Lord, release my selfishness." Salvation asks God to "bring forth revival." Facedown's owner, Jason Dunn, said, "War Of Ages is as much ministry as heavy music and that spirit shines throughout the new album."
The songs aren't just slogans, though. The Sputnikmusic review points out that some of the lyrics come from the abuse and hard times the Hamp brothers lived through as kids. Sleep of Prisoners is about running from your calling and blaming everyone else, with lines like "this life is not my fault."
There's a hard footnote. Lambesis, the producer, was arrested in 2013 and pleaded guilty to trying to hire a hit man to kill his estranged wife. In 2014 he was sentenced to six years in prison.
How it did
By the time it came out, War of Ages had been touring with bands like Throwdown, Soilwork and Bleeding Through, and Keel expected those shows to bring in new fans. The album didn't reach the Billboard charts. The next one, Eternal, did in 2010, again with Lambesis producing and with Sonny Sandoval of P.O.D. as a guest.
Where the score lands
So why an eight? All Consuming Fire and Salvation are as good as Christian metalcore got in 2008, and the guitar playing all the way through is a real step up from anything the band had done before. The production finally gives the songs weight, and the record is short enough that it never drags. Why not a nine? The critics who said they'd heard it before had a point. Hamp's scream doesn't change much from song to song, and a few tracks in the back half blur together. And why not a seven? Because the riffs and solos are better than they had to be, and you can hear a band that knew exactly what it believed and what it wanted to sound like.
Watch
First is the official video for All Consuming Fire, the opening song on this album. After that comes the video for Through the Flames, the third song, posted by RED, the distributor for the band's label.
Where this album sits on Loud Faith
If you like the melodic death metal side of this record, read our review of Becoming the Archetype's Terminate Damnation next. For more Christian metalcore from the same years, try August Burns Red's Messengers and Haste the Day's When Everything Falls. And for the band that showed everyone how heavy a Christian band could get, go back to Living Sacrifice's Reborn.
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