'The Wars of Gods and Men' marks the fourth album in for 'Warrior' and as with 'The Code of Life' the line-up undergoes a couple of changes, again giving the impression this is more of a 'Joe Floyd' solo project. The most notable replacement see 'Krokus's' 'Marc Storace' taking over from 'Rob Rock', hardly a like for like swap, but 'Marc' certainly doesn't disappoint and illustrates a wider vocal range than he uses with the Swiss Hard Rockers. Musically this is darker and slightly more modern than 'The Code of Life', but it lacks the melodies and adventurousness of it's predecessor, while the contemporary production does little to enhance matters.

Contrary to my last sentence, the album gets off to a very good start, with the title track firing on all cylinders, a high quality, brisk rocker that's not too dissimilar to work from 'The Code of Life', 'Marc Storace' instantly impresses with a powerful growling display and is well supported by a galloping rhythm and stringent fret work. Ensuing nearly as strongly is the pulsating 'Do It Now', a short but lively number that's more than a little reminiscent of heavier 'Krokus' especially with 'Storace's' more melodic approach, overall fairly simplistic but still effective. The momentum is picked up with the uncompromising 'Never Live Your Life Again' which sees some more modern influences creeping in, that said it comes off pretty strongly in a kind of 'Velvet Revolver' type way. Not quite so striking is the darker chugging 'Salvation', which at times owes a nod to 'Sabbath' (although far from their best), coming across as fairly generic and ultimately a little tedious. Bordering on the doors of Thrash Metal is the next track 'Three AM Eternal', an aggressive rocker that for me lacks refinement, with the only saving grace being a solid guitar fuelled instrumental break. The tempo falls for the balladsy 'Mars' which recalls 'Tony Martin' era 'Sabbath', isn't really in-keeping with the rest of the material, but that said a decent cut which displays nice work from 'Storace'. 'Unseen Forces' ensues in aggressive fashion but ultimately is fairly generic, while the plodding 'Hypocrite' is reminiscent of 90's 'Accept' and as such is pretty dire. A good dose of long overdue groove is applied to 'Naked Aggression' and in parts this a strong affair, plenty of fine guitaring, thundering rhythm work, but 'Storace's' nasty vocal approach does nothing for me. The album closes with the gloomy 'Love Above All' a sluggish number, that borders on the droning- not the best way to close an album.

Despite a solid performance from 'Marc Storace', this is a patchy affair and not up to the standards of 'The Code of Life'- the follow-up needs more work in the song writing department as this comes up pretty short of the mark.