This is a similar beast to their debut- powerful but with melody, hard driving but never out and out thrash. If you are a fan of Priest, Hammerfall, Accept and of course Destruction, there will be plenty for you to enjoy here. Classic heavy metal with a modern stainless steel sheen.
“Fatal Command” CD//DD track listing:
1. Satan's Hollow (4:04)
2. Fatal Command (4:57)
3. We Can Not Be Silenced (3:32)
4. I'll Bring You The Night (5:29)
5. Scorn And Hate (5:26)
6. Afflicted (4:42)
7. Skullbreaker (5:44)
8. Bleeding Allies (4:38)
9. The Decline (And The Downfall) (5:16)
10. Mistaken (4:54)
11. Promised Land (4:21)
The Review:
Pänzer came to prominence a couple of years back as a super group of sorts with members of Acceptand Destructioncombining to produce an album which sounded... mid way between those two bands. And very good it was too! The sophomore album by the band has seen Hermann Frank sadly depart, but the core of the band remain the same with Schmierand Stefan Schwarzmann still proving the thunderous underpinning to the band's sound. Pontus Norgren and V.O. Pulver fill out the line up this time around and the Swede/Swiss axis of metal works wonders.
The record is perhaps more anthemic than the debut “Send Them All To Hell” but it is just as metal; if not more so. There is huge choruses’ here- the opener “Satan's Hollow” is pure heavy metal, the following title track is more of the same. Big production and Schmier's manic vocals make this record feel energised and, in the right way, both retro and state of the art.
This is a harder proposition than Accept's latest (superb) album, but not at the level of intensity offered by Destruction. Schmier pushes and expands his vocal limits- as you can hear on “We Can Not Be Silenced”- and his willingness to turn in this type of performance says a lot about not resting on his laurels and giving his all to the record. There are mid paced chuggers like “I'll Bring You The Night” that nestle alongside more melodic and dynamic fair such as “Scorn” and “Hate” and you also get the pure heavy metal, verging on thrash, of “Afflicted” and the record is only half way at that point!
There is plenty of variety- “Skullbreaker”is a creeping and menacing track- not like the breakneck paced track I expected from the title. “Bleeding Allies”provides a stomping burst of pace and plenty of twin guitar work. The harder riffing of “The Decline (And The Downfall)” may please fans of Schmier'smain band, but there is still a sense of metallic melody through the verses.
The final stretch of the album takes in the widdly “Mistaken” (great) and the fast and furious “Promised Land” (even greater!) and really closes on a strong statement for the record. This is a similar beast to their debut- powerful but with melody, hard driving but never out and out thrash. If that sounds like your bag- or for reference if you are a fan of Priest, Hammerfall, Accept and of course Destruction, there will be plenty for you to enjoy here. Classic heavy metal with a modern stainless steel sheen.
“The Rise of Chaos” is precise, prescient, presented superbly in terms of artwork and production and, more importantly, rocks as hard as anything I have heard this year. A tour de force.
“The Rise of Chaos” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1). Die By the Sword
2). Hole in the Head
3). The Rise of Chaos
4). Koolaid
5). No Regrets
6). Analog Man
7). What’s Done is Done
8). Worlds Colliding
9). Carry the Weight
10). Race to Extinction
The Review:
Accept are back with a new-ish line-up and ten new songs. I'll put this out there straight away: I am a big fan of the Mark Tornillo fronted “new” Accept. “Blood of Nations” and “Stalingrad” were every bit as good as the Udo-fronted band's classics from the early eighties. “Blind Rage” was a very big commercial success for the band, but I found it a touch measured, a little too melodic and, well, just not quite heavy enough for my tastes (although “Stampede” is a true classic opener).
“Restless and Live” followed it as a very fine live 'career best of' and really gave great value for money for the fans. With “The Rise of Chaos”, the band deliver ten tracks over 45 minutes or so... and each track is balls to the wall metal!
No ballads here, and the record itself is a balanced mix of the hardest of hard rock (AC/DCon steroids) and the most Germanic of metal. Opener “Die by the Sword” has all the Accept trademarks in place; sandpaper lead vocals, Teutonic choir vocal backing, razor sharp riffing and rock solid rhythm section. It's a fine statement of intent and the record maintains that momentum throughout. It's a focused and often furious listen.
The song themes range from the dark and dystopian (the title track) to a more light-hearted, if curmudgeonly, view of the world (“Analog Man”). This is not a concept record per se, but as well as looking back to the past for comfort it also references darker events in “Koolaid”, via the Jonestown Massacre. For the most part, though, the record is firmly rooted in the present. The title track is a damning indictment of where the world is in 2017 and this is perhaps one upped by the storming “Carry the Weight”- a fleet of foot hook fest with some very contemporary political references. Is this the first metal album to reference Brexit?! Maybe.
The record is not as relentlessly dark as “Stalingrad”, but perhaps hits a note similar to “Blood of Nations”- but for my money this is a more intense listen. It's so focused and so relevant to the here and the now that I think the band have a real winner on their hands. Instead of pursuing more melodic writing, the band have gone back to their true strengths: riffs as tough as steel and hooks as catchy as anything else out there.
I can't find anything to fault on this album at all; the production is superb and state of the art, the individual performances of old and new members alike are stunning (Wolf Hoffmann is as flawless as ever, Peter Baltesditto, Mark Tornillo excels) and while the band may have lost Hermann Frank and Stefan Schwarzmann (a huge shame- even if we got The German Panzer out of their departure) they have gained Uwe Lulis and Christopher Williams on guitar and drums respectively.
If you happen to be a fan of old school metal in the vein of early Maiden, Dio-Era Sabbath, NWOBHM's best acts, Judas Priest and so on, then Acceptwill be right up your strasse, the band have managed to really breathe life into the latter part of their career and recapture the spark and inspiration that made them Germany's truly classic metal band in the 80's. The band are not thrash, but have the heaviness to appeal to any fan of, say, Overkill. They are not hard rock, but your average AC/DC nut would find much to enjoy here. “The Rise of Chaos” is precise, prescient, presented superbly in terms of artwork and production and, more importantly, rocks as hard as anything I have heard this year. A tour de force.
Hi, you wanna know about us?
