To put it simply, if nobody told me Warforged's Essence of the Land EP was a debut I would have just assumed it was written by a band that's been playing together for quite some time. The ideas are just too good, the meshing between musicians is too perfect and the experimentations with outside sounds fits too damn well. Warforged might be time travelers is what I'm telling you.
Essence of the Land clocks in at a brief 15-minutes, so getting the attention of the listener is key. Right from the get go of "Diabolical Being," the band are off and running with guitar solos and blasts which spill over into "Regurgitate." The thing I love about "Regurgitate" is the repetition of ideas so you're familiar with them when the band decides to distort them into something a little different and ultimately slow them down at the end of the song. "Phantoms In the Mist" follows it up and not only keeps up the slowdown, but adds some clean guitars, tambourine sounds, atmospheric keyboards and eventually an incredibly mournful piano. Then we get to closer "Tainted Heart," which is atmosphere, acoustic guitars and screams laden with reverb and far, far removed from the music. Essence of the Land is a downward spiral in a swamp that watches you sink until the bubbles stop.
