Spooky Fingers: Kampf, Ja.

Dürer like the painter. Ali like Baba. Fucker was our guide through Prague nearly 20 years ago. He narrated through unfiltered smokes while we looked, smelled: Air zmells body odor, uh, svet, fried meats, zee rotting wegetables… ah zee beer, zeee svet. Whores mingle amongst zee saint’s shit-covered statues… here Charles Bridge. OK. Little wonder Master’s Hammer hails forth. There was a fucking Buttman vid being filmed while we were there. In keeping with the theatricality of the region Czech upstart, Avenger, owns a tympani. They also like Dissection quite a bit. I am sure they have smelled the fried meat, rotting veg, beer and sweat. The drummer likely owns a Buttman vid. (He looks the shut-in type.) All fine and good: I enjoy all of the aforementioned. This record, Feast of Nature + Joy of Despair, has a quizzical title and forthright music. Epic, melodic Metal complete with wildly bombastic classical paroxysms doesn’t sound like anything anyone outside of the Fascists’ Supper Club would dig. But what the hey? I’m willing to lave these jackboots. Nine tracks all delivered in Czech, via May-retta’s Deathgasm records, haters. Give Ali my regards.

Also from zee Republica, Kult Ofenzivy who are treading not so lightly with a Triumph of the Will  stone-jawed Kraut serving as cover art. The title is pretty long and Czech and the music will appeal to anyone who finds a consummate time in drinking a six of Pilsner Urquell and then rubbing one out over Internet shit found re: Tawana Brawley. Intolerance, tradition, blast-beats, a deep, gruff guy intoning offensive diatribe in native tongue, yes. Nothing like Black Metal of the old days. There are plenty of lauded bands playing 10xs less competent blah than KO. Is that praise? I’m never sure.

Bedfellows these Hellenes are as their chosen moniker evokes invasion, genocide, too many episodes of Rat Patrol in the wee hours of a never-ending weekend… Hellas’ Kampf is my kind of filth, and their demo, Nothing but Wrath, ostensibly beefed up and issued by Regimental Records, is a short blast of Oi! treading Black Metal heavy on the misanthrope/exterminate-every-last-one-ov-‘em vibe. Fast, intense, passionate, nihilistic – all minus the usual tape hiss: The bullet-pointers usually anointed to Fossbrenna Creations’ esteemed Days of Yore wares or those residing in the “Black Twilight Circle” in Cal-eh-for-nigh-yay. The song titles rule, too: “Pissing Your Ideas;” “Hateful War Sirens,” etc. The candle that burns brightest burns shortest. Give me more.

Azarath is four Poles kicking ass at passionless, mechanistic Death Metal. Praise the Beast pulls some riffs from Dead Congregation’s grab bag and that’s about as much protest as I can muster. Skulls, blood, and fucking – the whole works – all delivered with capable hands and the mix is such that I can still hear drummer Inferno clicking on his ride cymbal. Killer stuff. Except for “Queen of the Sabbath,” a bonus feature Showgirls DVD (Japanese vers) soundtrack item…

Jersey’s Helcaraxe (umlaut on the ‘e’ there, kids) is the band Avenger thinks it is but refuses to hide its fixation with Bolt Thrower and Incantation. Bassist Pat Henry gets bonus points for keeping his xtian name and also playing in a Pirate-themed band, Swashbuckle. No shit. There’s not much room for pegleg cracks on Broadsword, a rather somber Death Metal record that features ultra-layered and unapologetically accomplished melodic guitar work. It’s all too vanilla for me even though “Chain Mail” has a ripping lead and folded-arms thug vokill going on. Nice Dave Mustaine solo, too!

[Stewart Voegtlin]

type: reviews    keywords: spooky fingers, lhp028,   

• 57 comments

  

  neu konservatiw

  9:52 AM on Jul 15, 2009 // reply »
  
  Just went hunting. Goddamnit if that Kult Ofenzivy is(apostrophe)nt right up my alley! (I might even recommend the first full-length as the better of the two.)
  
  Let(apostrophe)s have a Stalinist commission for anything calling itself (quote)black metal.(end quote) KO chairs the commission, and if so-labeled (quote)bm(endquote) doesn(apostrophe)t receive the KO schtamp ov approval, the impostors are promptly show-trialed, convicted, renounced and shot.
  
  Thanks for making my day.
  
  
• 321 comments

  

  VOEGTLIN

  10:11 AM on Jul 15, 2009 // reply »
  
  Hitler Youth Club is where it's at, I'm told. No surprises there.
  
  KO is nowhere close to Kampf, which cools it on the seeg heyeull imagery and brings the War is Hell tenfold.
• 57 comments

  

  neu konservatiw

  5:02 PM on Jul 15, 2009 // reply »
  
  Nah, Kampf ain't schei￟e. If you put in a good word for them, maybe they'll end up in a forced labor camp instead of a mass grave. Oh, and I'll swallow a Reichsarbeitsdienst dagger if the s-z ligature in my first sentence doesn't turn into a little box when I post this.
• 57 comments

  

  neu konservatiw

  5:03 PM on Jul 15, 2009 // reply »
  
  Well, fuck.
• 57 comments

  

  neu konservatiw

  5:06 PM on Jul 15, 2009 // reply »
  
  Okay, now it's a box. Whew.
• 321 comments

  

  VOEGTLIN

  12:33 PM on Jul 20, 2009 // reply »
  
  It is fucking amazing what a GAY HITLER preview image will do to pull readers in.
• 321 comments

  

  VOEGTLIN

  12:35 PM on Jul 20, 2009 // reply »
  
  The same goes for that NIGHTBRINGER deal where the news blurb is getting more reads than the review itself.
• 57 comments

  

  neu konservatiw

  3:21 PM on Jul 21, 2009 // reply »
  
  Gay Hitler? Was there a straight one?
• 321 comments

  

  VOEGTLIN

  3:24 PM on Jul 21, 2009 // reply »
  
  The one I am remotely familiar with is not as engulfed in flames as this representation.
  
  But, you know...

 

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