Panzerchrist - The 7th Offensive (2013)

If you're familiar with American football, then you'll understand when I say that Panzerchrist have long been among death metal's linebackers: brutal, immovable, competent and dependable, but never counted upon to make the key plays in the genre. Instead, efforts like Outpost - Fort Europa and Soul Collector hovered about the midfield, beating on any takers, without ever breaking for a touchdown. A hard helmet to crack. Two decades of death metal uncompromising. Lots of 'good' albums, but not necessarily any 'great' ones. Well, The 7th Offensive doesn't entirely break out of this position on the field, but to tap further into my absurd analogy, it DOES seem like the band's beloved tank mascot is beginning to finally roll across the yards towards the enemy scoreline, with one of their more memorable records in some time now.

The key here is melody: it's never exactly been absent in their songwriting, but The 7th Offensive is loaded with tapping and other lead techniques that are being used as central atmospheric forces to drive the rhythm guitars, which are just grimy enough to grant them the composition of the blood and mud on some forsaken battlefront. The riffing bedrock isn't exactly complicated, but both the slogging, massive chord structures and the thundering kick-accompanied tremolo picking sequences are incredibly determined, smothered in blunt and hoarse gutturals with the meter of an artillery commander barking out orders to soldiers that he is fully aware are about to die; meat for the grinding machine of strife and violence. The band is a long way out from having Reno Killerich, but the beats here are fuck-solid batteries of mortar fire spewing all over the front lines, while the lung rupturing bass lines cruise along in a distorted paste that sounds like flesh being run through the treads. What The 7th Offensive sounds like to me is at long last, an evolution of the war death metal style pioneered by Bolt Thrower in the late 80s: accelerated in places, threaded with effective clinical melodies (like the bridge of "Foreign Fields") and stylized with gruff vocal effects.

Remarkably, just like Regiment Ragnarok two years ago, this is being performed with an almost entirely new lineup, the one exception being the bassist/morale officer Michael 'Panzergeneral' Enevoldsen, who just sounds fantastic here with both his bass lines and the mild use of synthesizers to flesh out the gruesome and convincing atmosphere of each sortie. This fresh infusion of blood and talent has obviously made a huge difference in the group's sound, without abandoning the core military concepts and brutal bombardment aesthetics that have made Panzerchrist one of the most consistent, long running names in Danish death. The leads here add an unexpected sense of elegance to the crushing momentum of the rhythm section, and thus I felt more of a stark but effective contrast between the beauty and ugliness of the songs than I remember off most of the older discs. There isn't a whole lot of variation between the riffing progressions, with 3-4 motifs (usually mid-paced) dominating the 40 minute experience, but at the same time its incredibly consistent and steady. You do NOT wanna get tackled by this beast, because all that will remain is bone dust and flakes of skin...not enough for identification without a DNA kit. Very good stuff here, which I can easily and heartily recommend to fans of Bolt Thrower, Hail of Bullets, Jungle Rot, Invasion and other noted death metal warmongers.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.facebook.com/panzerchristofficial

Panzerchrist - Regiment Ragnarok (2011)

Long a staple of the brutal Danish undercurrent alongside fellows like Exmortem and Iniquity, Panzerchrist has never quite burst out into the venous walls of the average death fan's attention span, if only because there are simply so many options available that one simply can never get around to them all. That said, this is a band with a long history of quality. Perhaps none of their prior efforts could be called 'outstanding', but if you desire little more than your ass being handed to you through competent execution, albums like Six Seconds Kill, Soul Collector and Room Service are worth connecting to. It's been five years since the band's last full-length, Battalion Beast, and mainstay Michael Enevoldsen has undergone a number of additional lineup changes, adopting vocalist Magnus Jørgensen (also of Crocell) into the fold, drummer Mads Lauridsen (Konkhra), and guitarist Lasse Bak (ex-Illdisposed).

For Jørgensen, Panzerchrist is a bit more brutal and straightforward than his alma mater, though nearly as dynamic. His mix of grunts and snarls flesh out the compositions rather well, but as with nearly Panzerchrist album, it's the drumming that grabs the attention first. Thus, Regiment Ragnarok functions on intense blasting and mind boggling footwork, both of which Lauridsen possesses in abundance, an extremely reliable replacement for the well regarded Reno Killerich, who played on some of the better known albums. This is fast fucking death metal in general, but tracks like "For the Iron Cross", "The Armour of Armageddon" and "Ode to a Cluster Bomb" do well enough to balance the percussive transgression with riffs that are worth a damn: rapid and bleeding, belligerent melodies that might just as well be placed within the war black metal context as this thundering tumult. A few of the tunes like "King Tiger" and "Impact" are somewhat less interesting, if no less forceful, but the majority ensure that the Danish act retain their deserved title of 'the hyper Bolt Thrower' (just listen to "Trenches").

As with most of their backlog, the production is taut and intense enough to compete with the larger names in the wide spread of the genre, but admittedly the rather one track blasting that occupies the larger fraction of its play length does depreciate upon repeated listens. With only about a half dozen glorious riffs present through the compositions, there simply isn't that much to hold on to in the longer run. The Danes rarely hurl a surprise your way, simply endless volleys of focused discontent. Perpetual artillery. For some listeners, this might be enough to justify a purchase, but I found that, despite the considerable skill involved here, a pang of monotony, like listening to incessant machine gun fire. Terrifying at first, when one considers the viscera being chopped up through the bullet storm on the battlefield, but you soon become too acclimated to this initial shock value. Regiment Ragnarok is no pushover, but neither did I find it could hold my interest for more than a few spins.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.myspace.com/Panzerchristofficial