PÄNZER - Fatal Command

October 6, 2017, 6 years ago

(Nuclear Blast)

Mark Gromen

Rating: 8.0

review heavy metal panzer

PÄNZER - Fatal Command

Panzer is the more musically adept alter-ego for Schmier (Destruction singer/bassist), joined by Hammerfall guitarist Pontus Norgren and ex-Accept skin beater Stefan Schwarzmann. Second guitar is provided by Poltergeist's VO Pulver. Tremendous amount of clean guitar soloing throughout the eleven tunes. Once you get beyond the comical cover art (a must buy for all of Western civilization!), one is struck by the fact the musical stew sounds nothing like the influences of its component parts. 

“We Can Not Be Silenced”, sure to be a big live number, recalls the shouted chants which Kreator do so well, while “I'll Bring You The Night” seems to be autobiographical, from Schmier's perspective. A gentle giant, surely there have been times fans/business antics have caused him to want to snap. He wrote the song instead. Apart from a thrashy “Afflicted”, the music isn't as aggressive as typically associated with the Destruction frontman, thus giving himself (and everyone else) a chance to stretch their musical boundaries, without alienating the core. Witness the slow boiling “Skullbeaker” while “The Decline (And The Downfall)” comes across as an old Accept outtake (funny, now that Herman Frank has flown the coop). Check out the drum bashing intro to widdly guitar accented “Mistaken” (with its sarcastic “sweat child of Satan, why can't you see” chorus). Judas Priest would be proud of the “Promised Land” melody.



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