(Andy Synn goes back to the front with the new album from German fusiliers Kanonenfieber)
War… war never changes.
And neither, in some ways, do Kanonenfieber, whose long-awaited and highly-anticipated second album, Die Urktatastrophie (transl. “The Original/Primal Catastrophe”) comes out next week (September 20, to be exact).
And yet… and yet… those of us who’ve been marching alongside the band over the years, slogging through the mud and blood of Menschenmühle (2021), then going on to join the Yankee Division to fight against Der Füsilier (2022), only to find ourselves staring deep into the abyss as a U-Bootsmann (2023), will know from experience that although the band (strictly speaking a solo project, I know) may not have changed, their tactics have definitely, albeit subtly, evolved with each new engagement.
In particular, there’s been a slow but steady shift in focus to incorporate more of Death Metal’s riff-centric heft and rhythmic hookiness with each and every release, with the result being that the group’s career has, up to a point at least, followed a similar arc to their Dutch cousins (and similar WWI scholars) God Dethroned.
But whereas the latter’s most recent album ended up falling a little (or, more accurately, a lot) short of achieving its objectives, the anti-war anthems of Die Urkatastrophe have no such problems hitting their target.
One of the reasons that Die Urkatastrophe is so successful – and this is something which, in my opinion, applies to their entire catalogue – is that it never loses focus on putting songwriting first and foremost.
Indeed, the relative simplicity of Kanonenfieber‘s songwriting style is perhaps their greatest strength of all, with each track built around a handful of hand-picked, hand-crafted riffs and hand-sharpened hooks that largely eschew unnecessary complexity – you’ve got to remember that the more complicated a weapon is to use the more likely it is to fail or jam up in the heat of battle – in favour of lethal efficiency and maximum explosive yield.
The snare-driven “Menschenmühle”, for example, is built around a melancholy melodic motif and a humongous chorus hook which combine to make the song one of the most instantly infectious on the album, while “Sturmtrupp” up the aggression levels with its killer combo of stomping rhythms and seething tremolo, the two tracks quickly setting a very high bar for the rest of the album.
Thankfully the burly, brooding slow-burn of “Der Maulwurf” – which features yet another mournfully anthemic chorus – is more than up to the task, and while the shift towards a more overtly Melodeath-y, Heaven Shall Burn style sound on “Lviv zu Lemberg” doesn’t quite have the same impact as its predecessors, both the electrifying blackened barrage of “Waffenbrüder” (which actually does feature a guest appearance from HSB guitarist Maik Weichert) and the shamelessly Necrophobic-esque “Gott mit der Kavallerie” continue to harness the album’s deathly energy with merciless, martial precision.
And then there’s “Panzerhenker” and “Ritter der Lüfte” where – although the latter’s melodic gallop at times feels a little predictable – the stomping sturm und deathly drang of the former track and its pounding, irresistibly infectious percussive rhythms marks out yet another high point on an album which seems destined for glory.
Even the record’s final moments, the sombre atmospheric interlude of “Verdun” giving way seamlessly to the semi-symphonic, devilishly Dimmu-ish strains of “Ausblutungsschlacht” and the haunting acoustic minimalism of “Als die Waffen kamen” – which, in my opinion, serves as a perfect ending to the album, balancing the preceding fifty-ish minutes of epic bombast with a climactic touch of bleak, reflective beauty – manage to maintain the band’s infamously, and impeccably, high standards, helping mark Die Urkatastrophe out as yet another triumph, albeit one steeped in tragedy, from one of the best up-and-coming bands currently taking the field.