Looking over my current collection of various metal albums, I’ve come to one conclusion. I am living too much in the past with the current music that I have been shuffling through in my ipod and my CD player. I thought it was the perfect time to spring away from my usual metal listening ritual and to discover a band completely new to the metal circuit. Warseid has arrived combining three of my favorite styles of metal which include folk, black, and symphonic elements to their mix of metal madness.

What I can say from listening to their self-released EP is that I was completely oblivious to the fact that they were not from the Scandinavian black metal area I originally believed them to be from. Warseid hails from Madison, Wisconsin which came at a great surprise to me. It was unusual for me to see this information because America is so ridiculed with rap and hip hop culture. It’s a good feeling to see a new and upcoming band in the states play this style of metal. Most of my album collection consists of strictly European and Scandinavian metal bands, but I will be happy to add this EP to my collection any time.

For being a self-released album, Warseid’s first EP is of considerable production quality. Now I cannot go on to say that it is perfect, but they have done an extremely great job in the production and recordings of their EP. Along with the production quality, the album contains some great musicianship. One area of focus of the album I really enjoyed was the guitar work. The guitars come in two varieties on the album which first consisted of thrash and black metal style influences. The second, the band also emphasized a folk metal style which can be heard with their acoustical style of playing. Songs go from high energy moments to slower, more somber points on the album. The parts I found very entertaining were the slower moments with the acoustic guitars. I was very impressed with how the songs transitioned to these parts. I found myself enjoying these sections of the songs the most during my listen. The keyboards have a very symphonic approach to its style of playing. One band in particular that they reminded me of at times was the band Carach Angren. However I cannot say that Warseid stands up to such a great band as Carach Angren, but they do have wonderful potential in their future. The singing on the EP is directed towards black metal shrieks and clean singing and rarely does it come across at all as deep death metal growls.

Warseid may possibly raise the eyebrows of many metal heads or more importantly, this EP should also turn the heads of many metal record labels. It is still early to determine what will happen but all I can say is that I am definitely looking forward to a release of a full length album from the band. If it contains any songs like Shackles Through Sand on the the EP, then we shall be looking forward to a great album from them in the near future.