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Four years after their debut, Quebec City metallers Warning Sign are back with their sophomore album, Path to Destruction. Seeing how much I enjoyed Left to the Sharks, I had high hopes for this one, and I'm glad to say that they were not in vain, as this is another ass-stomping slab of U.S. Metal in the vein of Attacker and especially Jag Panzer. Album opener "Redemption" sets the tone for the album with killer riffs, catchy songwriting, and awesome vocals, and it never really lets up. Oliver Perrier-Maurel and Maxim Beaulieu prove to be a killer ax-duo capable of churning out one stomping, addictive riff after the other, and Maxim sounds even better than he did last time, sometimes even sounding like The Tyrant himself. They even inject some of their songs with some retro flair, like the Maiden-esque singalong sections of "The Eye of the Storm" and the opening riff of "Hell on Wings", which sounds pretty similar to "Bark at the Moon" to my ears.

I could go on all day about everything that works, but really, the trick to this kind of thing is that there's no trick. You just have to play with conviction, energy, and fistfuls of smoldering riffs, and these Canucks have that down in spades. If you're looking for an album of killer, balls-to-the-wall Metal that's full of great songs and lacking in dull moments, then you can't go wrong with Path to Destruction.