This album and the band as a whole are the reason why I despise a majority of modern metal. Terrible bands that use the same annoying breakdowns with the same awful "bree-bree" vocals need to all go die, so that bands like Mexico's Warfare can be heard. With "Um' Mäarak" being the band's debut record and not having heard of these guys at all before, I was not prepared for the black thrashing onslaught that was about to occur, but once the album had finished I was completely pleased with the results.
Firstly let's put things into perspective about the sound of Warfare because they're not like your typical black/thrash band. Yes, they have the awesome vocal stylings (although they border on punk at times) and they also have the riffs, but there's much more to these guys than just that. If you took Sadus on "Illusions" and threw a massive black/thrash influence into that record, you would get "Um' Mäarak." That intensity that Sadus had is present here, but so is that technical prowess as some of the riffs could have been written by Darren Travis himself. The Sadus-esque riffs that start off tracks like "Forgotten Cenotaph" and "Inhuman Annihilation" are truly amazing when mixed with the black/thrash brutality later on and make for some memorable moments as the vocalist devastates listeners. In between the fast tech-tinged riffs are your typical raging thrash riffs that these bands have been using for years, with very little slowing down and extremely fast-paced drumming with the occasional blasts.
Even the two instrumental tracks "Warriors From Hell" and "Meng Amok" feature better riffs and music than a lot of thrash acts these days do. There really isn't much more to say about Warfare and their awesome spin on the subgenre, other than they sound like they had been caged for a couple of years and have now been unleashed to wreak havoc. At this point I don't even care if the new Aura Noir or Desaster albums suck, because I could easily just listen to "Um' Mäarak" to fill that void.
Highlights
"Hate Machine"
"Forgotten Cenotaph"
"Inhuman Annihilation"
Final Rating
4.5/5 or 90%.