Warbringer Singer Names Bands That Sparked Modern Thrash Revival

Thrash is alive and well in 2025 and Warbringer‘s John Kevill credits the late 2000s revival for ensuring the health of thrash metal.

During an appearance on Full Metal Jackie’s weekend radio show, the Warbringer frontman spoke about his love for thrash metal and how a new generation of bands have pushed thrash in interesting new ways.

“To me it’s just the most like rip roaring, adrenaline surge, head banging stuff you can see live. That’s my favorite thing that keeps me involved in the genre and I just can’t get over it,” says Kevill.

Within the chat, he names four bands from modern thrash who laid the groundwork for where thrash metal is at today. You can see those below within the interview transcription.

His own band has also done plenty to further the style and that continues with the newly released Wrath and Ruin album. Within the chat, Kevill and Jackie discuss the very modern ideals that have inspired their latest effort and how the singer has used having a band as a platform to work out his feelings and emotions of getting through difficulties in his daily world.

The singer also offered appreciation for fellow bandmate Adam Carroll and what it’s meant to have someone who has been there to share their musical vision throughout the band’s lengthy run.

Plus, Warbringer have some killer tours this year in the U.S. and abroad and John offers his thoughts on the mix of legendary and newer bands that they’ll be sharing the stage with this year.

Check out more of the chat below.

It’s Full Metal Jackie and I am so excited to welcome back to the show my good friend, Mr. John Kevill of Warbringer. The band is back with the new album Wrath and Ruin, adding to their already outstanding thrash legacy. And this is the band’s first album in five years and their seventh overall. John, what was the jumping off point for new music? 

When we finally started touring Weapons of Tomorrow, it was like 2023. And I think we were on a tour with Cavalera. And sometime around there, I came up actually with the titles and ideas for “The Sword and the Cross” and “A Better World.”

And like usual, I started with a random lyric from each. So I wrote the whole end verse of “Sword and the Cross” where it’s like the feudal lord kind of mocking the listener and saying, My children will own your children, and I will own you forever, you peasant.

I wrote that whole verse before the entire rest of the song. That was sort of the jumping off point for the record, which definitely gives it a certain flavor and direction.

Warbringer, “The Sword and the Cross”

Let’s talk about “The Sword and the Cross.” It sounds like something that could be based out of olden days with a ruler using violence and ideology to keep people down. But it’s also a bit of a cautionary tale for modern days. Can you talk about the idea of techno feudalism and what initially sparked this conversation for a song idea?

I was listening to some social economic theories of just being a person in the world, trying to understand it. There’s this guy, Yanis Varoufakis. He’s a European economic schemer, but he coined this term techno feudalism, so you can find him talking about it a bunch, but it’s something that you can just observe very clearly.

The idea of “The Sword and the Cross” is that we still basically have lords and peasants, and we’re just in complete denial about it. But we do, like, de facto, I’m a peasant and I’m paying a tribute up the economy all the time to various lords. It’s very distributed and sort of faceless at the moment, but it’s still absolutely there.

So I thought of having a medieval lord sort of mocking the listener and calling them a peasant. At the end he says, my castles of stone, now steel and glass. That’s skyscrapers. That’s a clue. I’m not talking about the Middle Ages. I’m talking about today. And just making a comparison that it is not really so different in its fundamental essence. So that’s the idea.

There is kind of acting as if the old medieval lord who is exploiting the serfs is still there lording over you, and he’s still laughing at you because you don’t believe he’s there.

John, having music as a platform is not only a great way to express your art, but also a way to work through some difficult times. A song like “A Better World,” the lead single from the album, is a good example. Can you talk about where that song came from and how having music has helped you get through this sometimes challenging world?

Well that song is bleak as hell. Basically that came about actually when we were kind of grounded for Covid after “Weapons of Tomorrow” came out. I’m stuck at home. We’re paying most of what we own of what we make to other people, my wife and I, and we feel stuck there.

I’m reading things and the news doesn’t look good. I go to a therapist because you’re supposed to seek therapy. And they pretty much tell me that the stuff I’m worried about, which is mostly bigger picture concerns about my own future, that’s all real. That’s legitimate. Uh, do you want some drugs? We can numb you to it.

I just found that response so disheartening. I ended up not going for any depression or anything, because I don’t want that really. I’d be lying if I told you that I never smoke or drink because I’m feeling bad. So I just wanted to kind of capture that emotion in a song where instead of there being some “and then we rise up and change it,” where the guys, the speakers just accepted things are not going to get any better, and he’s just got to keep his head down, ignore it, and sedate himself to get through his day. And that’s it.

I think a lot of people are feeling that way. I felt when I was writing it that that was somehow a little different or unique of an angle. I was like, “Oh, geez, I hope this isn’t too much of a bummer for people to enjoy as far as just doing it.”

Yeah, it does feel good to have written that. And generally screaming and raging about stuff in the band is cathartic, for sure. 100 percent.

Warbringer, “A Better World”

Listening to this album, I’m catching the ideas of power dynamics and class structure working their way into the material. There’s usually something a little autobiographical in what we choose to write about. How is the idea of class structure and power impacted your daily life?

Oh, it’s very simple. Just what I make versus what I gotta pay to live. It’s that simple. The amount of interest versus the actual cost of our house. And when my wife and I look at that, those are hours of our life we’re gonna have to spend to pay someone else, basically. Someone else gets that something else because of what they own, not because of what they do, so to speak. So it just affects everything. It’s kind of behind the price of everything you run into in your life. And that sort of aggregates to how much freedom you actually have.

That’s why pretty much we live okay, but we have no security. I think if we ever stop the wheel or, God forbid, one of us gets sick, our whole life could go very sideways and we could lose everything we have quite easily. So that precariousness impacts our state.

The thing is, if my wife and I are going to like, fight each other or argue, that’s the issue at the core of it. And that really sucks. So it affects me. These things that are very structural and economic and impersonal affect you on the most profound and personal levels in ways you don’t necessarily realize.

So I was kind of coming to terms with that as writing this whole thing and just trying to bottle that feeling and put it out there on a record because I felt that that’s something timely and honest.

John. It was 2004 when Warbringer formed and 2008 when War Without End first arrived. Not all bands are meant to last, and you’ve seen band members come and go, but Adam Carroll has been through it all with you. What does it mean to you to have passed the 20 year mark of doing this and to at least have the relationship of having a bandmate who’s been there every step of the way with you on this journey?

Oh, it means a lot too. Adam has been there the whole time since the founding. He was actually the drummer on our first demo, even though he’s our guitarist. Just having a guy who knows what the band’s about and what the journey’s been really helps guide us as we move forward.

When we write something new or different, Is this right for the band? It’s like we have that feeling almost because I can’t trust many folks with our art, but Adam’s one that I can be like, is this the right move? Does this look cool for us? Is this good for us? And just the shared memories and stuff as well.

READ MORE: Warbringer’s John Kevill – Metal Doesn’t Need to Be a Beavis + Butthead Kind of Genre

I remember one time a year or two ago, we’re having some beers in Adam’s friend’s yard in Ventura and we’re going through the B side tracks on War Without End and seeing if we can remember them. And we were just air vocaling them. So doing “Born of the Ruins” and air guitaring the riffs and like air vocal. As it turns out, we still remember all our old songs that we haven’t played in like 15 plus years, which is hilarious.

So absolutely it’s great to have Adam there still. I think he’s a core part of the band as a writer. He tends to add a lot of the dark melodic elements that I think help set Warbringer apart from the thrash metal pack.

Full Metal Jackie with John Kevill of Warbringer with us. We’ve been talking about the new record Wrath and Ruin. And as someone who’s found their life’s passion in thrash metal, we always hear about the big four that got things rolling in the 80s. You’re among the bands that have picked up the torch and carried it into the 21st century. We’ll let those big four be the big four. But who would you put in your modern big four of thrash? And what is your thought on the state of thrash metal in 2025?

Well, I’d say that the biggest contribution our whole era and movement had is that thrash metal is a genre that’s actively existing, actively putting out records. I think that not us specifically, but the whole 2007, 2008 thrash revival kind of put it back on the map. There’s been a lot of different bands and styles that have come out in the modern era.

We’ve had like Municipal Waste has a strong long career. Havok. I think Vector is a band that’s not around too much anymore that put out very like noteworthy, distinct albums that are different from anything you hear in the 80s. Power Trip had a huge record that made a lot of people love the modern era.

Then also I think a lot of the classic bands either reformed and started playing again or started playing like a more thrashy style again. I think that has something to do with basically seeing that there is this energy and love and revitalization of the genre. The biggest achievement of all is that you can go and see a thrash metal concert in your town today pretty much.

I don’t think that was the case too often before. The whole movement we are a part of kicked off it really and put it back on the map and made it another part of the metal landscape.

It’s one that absolutely should be there because to me it’s just the most like rip roaring, adrenaline surge, head banging stuff you can see live. That’s my favorite thing that keeps me involved in the genre and I just can’t get over it.

John, Warbringer’s hitting the road this year you’ve got co headline dates with Allegaeon in the U,S. and you’re supporting Kreator in Europe. What are your thoughts on the bands you’re getting to play with in 2025? Do you have a past relationship with them and admire their music?

It’s old and new. In the case of Kreator, we’ve toured with them multiple times in the past and that counts. They are one of our influences, particularly the first five records. But in general a very strong band needs no introduction, but Rotting Christ is a band we’ve not played with before on those same dates in the summer. Really looking forward to that. Really cool, unique sound I would say.

Then in the case of Allegaeon, we’ve never played with them before. That’s what you call a more modern sounding technical death metal band. But it’s a cool mix of styles and I think we’re each going to bring something really different to the table to blow people’s heads off pretty much.

We’ve got Skeletal Remains who Carlos Cruz, our drummer, played on one of their records and they’re from the L.A. scene like we are. We played with them a bunch. Really looking forward to actually hitting the road with them, which we’ve never done before. So it’s a mix of old and new bands we’ve known, some bands we haven’t and we’re looking forward to all of it.

Our thanks to Warbringer’s John Kevill for the interview. The Wrath and Ruin album is available now and you can keep up with Warbringer through their website, Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and Spotify. Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie’s weekend radio show here.