Dogtag Remains are a death metal band from Greece, and their debut album Forgotten Battlefields is now set for co-release by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Australis Records (Chile) on April 25th.
As both the band’s name and the new album’s title suggest, the band have focused the subject matter of their music on war and all its madness, terror, and destruction — and the music itself renders those themes with devastating power and electrifying intensity, while also oppressively dragging listeners into the sinkholes of agony and hopelessness that inflict warfare’s victims.
Many of the new album’s 8 songs are apparently based upon historical events that the band wish us to remember, and that includes the one we’re premiering today — “Hill 731“.
The song makes a devastating impact even if you don’t know what it’s about, but it’s relevant to share what we found out about the subject matter via The Font of All Human Knowledge:
The Battle of Hill 731 was a fierce battle fought during World War II in southern Albania, part of the Greco-Italian War. It began in the early morning of 9 March 1941, when Fascist Italy launched an assault (Operation Primavera) against Greece, aimed at capturing the critical mountain pass leading into the Kalpaki valley. Hill 731, strategically located 20 km north of Klisura (Këlcyrë) at the feet of Mount Trebeshinë, stood at the heart of the Greek defensive line. Despite being repeatedly and heavily attacked by superior Italian forces for over two weeks, Hill 731 was not captured, contributing to the failure of the Primavera offensive and the repulsion of Italians.
And with that context in place, let’s turn to the song itself.
As we’ve said, it’s a devastating sonic assault. Launched by the wail of sirens and the rattle of gunfire, it explodes in a high-speed blast-front of scathing, swarming, and manically pulsating riffage, munitions-grade drum fusillades, magma-like bass undulations, and harrowing howls. It creates a vortex of madness, with the lead guitar screaming in harrowing delirium through the destructive mayhem.
Grim and grievous chords ring out; deranged snarls shift between the channels; dismal whirring riffs create feelings of desperation under terrible threat; and when the percussive guns fall briefly silent, the music moans in deepest agony, and then begins to stagger in a doom-shrouded march, as raw and wrenching howls cry out.
But the assault resumes with frightening intensity — the drums going full-bore again, the guitars cutting and drilling with cruel power and writhing in dense and demoralizing displays of ferocious violence, until the true sounds of war bring things to a bitter end.
DOGTAG REMAINS is:
Kostas Eleftheriadis – bass, vocals
Thanos Kougioulis – guitars
Jim Pastos – guitars
Vaggelis Kavalieratos – drums
Forgotten Battlefields was recorded, mixed and mastered at Adyton Recordings by Nick Setesh. Artworks and logo were created by Felipe Mora.
Satanath and Australis will release the album in a CD edition with a 12-page booklet (layout by Sotiris Kitsopoulos), as well as digitally. They recommend it for fans of HAIL OF BULLETS, GRAVE, SKELETAL REMAINS, and DEAD CONGREGATION. For more info, check the locations linked below.
We’ve also included streams of the first two attention-seizing singles released from the album, “Varsity” and “Encirclement“.
PRE-ORDER:
https://satanath.bandcamp.com/album/sat373-dogtag-remains-forgotten-battlefields-2024
http://www.australisrecords.com
australis@australisrecords.com
DOGTAG REMAINS:
http://www.facebook.com/dogtagremainsofficial
http://www.instagram.com/dogtagremainsofficial
http://dogtagremainsofficial.bandcamp.com/