Warrant - Ready to Command

I trust my metal brethren are still with me and reading this review.

For those of you that didn’t run scared or choose to sever any arterial sources over the band’s name, I know those of you in the mix understand that I hasn’t lost all of my marbles just yet. Long before those doorknobs in that ridiculous hair-band ceremoniously pimped the name, Warrant was a Germany speed/traditional metal act from Germany in the early 80’s. It was this band that we in the underground know and remember from the heyday of thrash and speed. 

Ready to Command is a dream CD for the fans of Warrant that had a hard time finding the LP’s and the two-on-one that appeared some years ago. This gem houses the First Strike EP and The Enforcer full-length, both from 1985. I can’t recommend these two releases any higher; I first heard them in around late ‘85 when an eighth grader played the vinyl for me after school one day. As a disciple of Maiden and Venom as well as others I was anxious to hear more when I heard “Ready to Command” and “Satan”, two tracks that stuck with me for many years. What you’ll ghet here in Ready to Command is a trip back in time to the early 80’s German speed era. While bands like Kreator, Sodom, and Destruction had thrash metal by its gnarly throat and were shaking the unholy life out of it, bands like Warlock, Helloween, Stormwitch and Warrant were popping up on radars everywhere with a stylish brand of sometimes speedy, but well-constructed traditional power metal. Sadly, Warrant didn’t gain nearly the accolades it might have; leaving behind two collectible LP’s to be snapped up by fans and collectors over the years as well as a band in near-obscurity simply shouldn’t have happened for these guys.

While not overly stylish or perfectly-produced, Warrant’s sound was all too indicative of the early 80’s power metal that would eventually morph into the bombastic bastard child it is today. This is true power metal in its finest hour. With The Enforcer we get early Helloween meshing ever delicately with Mercyful Fate and fellow countrymen Running Wild ala Gates to Purgatory or Branded and Exiled. Sadly, where Warrant really made some incredibly strong music for its time period, other bands came along and pretty much claimed the glory ripe for the picking. Some memorable riffs and terrific vocals that border on a quicker-paced Andy Muck from Stormwitch with some highs ala Steve Grimmett from Grim Reaper, though not as “showy” in design. For me to pick out standouts here would defeat the overall purpose of getting those of you not familiar with these guys to get out and seek them out. If you have any affinity towards any of the bands I’ve mentioned here, you’ll like Warrant, no doubt about it. And to assuage your curious minds, no, “Nuns Have No Fun” is not a Mercyful Fate cover, and while not nearly as “kvlt” as Fate’s it’s still a cool song.

What Ready to Command also encompasses besides the aforementioned EP and full-length is some live tracks from the Keep it True VIII festival in ’07. Here you get a very competent feel for the band’s live prowess as well as its studio presence. On top of those treasures you also get two tracks that were supposed to appear on a since-shelved second LP in ’86 called “Flame of the Show” and “When Sirens Call”. These versions are 1999 re-recordings of these songs and it makes me wonder what that second release might have sounded like back then. Nevertheless, we have two of them now and they’re just as resonating as the older material.

I’m telling you straight, you can’t go wrong with the true Warrant; these songs are far more lasting and important than some silly blonde bimbo writhing about a baked fruit pie while some glorified bar band makes babbling idiots of the teenage girls of the 80’s.

O, the humanity of the easily impressed….

Release Date: October 15, 2010
Label: Pure Steel Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Intro
2.  The Rack
3.  Ordeal of Death
4.  Nuns have no Fun
5.  Send Ya' To Hell
6.  The Enforcer
7.  Betrayer
8.  Die Young
9.  Torture in the Tower
10.  Cowards or Martyrs
11.  Satan
12.  Ready to Command
13.  Condemned Forever
14.  Scavenger's Daughter
15.  Bang That Head
16.  Flame of the Show
17.  When Siren's Call
18.  Nuns have no Fun (Live)
19.  The Rack (Live)

Total playing time:  01:16:17

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*Comments:

Reviewer: Chris

March 21, 2011