There used to be a time when bands attempted, to varying degrees of success, to be the most violent, pugnacious and fastest band on the planet. Back in the day albums were adorned with stickers staking claim to said pedestal in an attempt to win over speed fetishists, violence purveyors and generally gutter trawling fans worldwide. The dilution of the scene in the last decade or so has seen those accolades virtually obliterated, except of course unless you’re called Keitzer and are from Germany and releasing your fifth album of incendiary like sonic detonations. Admittedly this band is unfamiliar to me but I shall be back tracking their discography as a priority now I’ve heard this release.
Intro pieces to extreme metal albums are the norm but at least some thought has gone into setting the scene for the album, with an ambience of ferocity building grimly before the “Exist To Destroy” is dropped on the listener like a hand grenade. The nihilistic blasting hints at the bands grinding attributes and though short in duration this tune is packed with enough tempo changes and scathing double kick rampages to compete with established death metal acts. “This Is The Only Solution” cruises into death metal destruction, with an old style feel reminiscent of early Sinister material. The intensity thunders through like a tornado as the acoustic start to “Forever War” catches you out somewhat before switching guises and bringing forth vitriolic aural vandalism akin to Deicide many years ago. The title track is afforded a copious deluge of double kick before an insane borderline grind blast intercedes. The riff breaks are great, nothing groundbreaking, but work to section the song into slices of savagery.
It should be noted that this is a super quick album, the drumming is potent, unleashing bombs of brutality throughout the album as on “Fleshcrawl”, a crushing piece of artillery heavy pounding similar to Vomitory. In fact much of this release is similar to the said, now defunct, Swedish act. With pristine pulverising occurring on ‘Glorious Dead” the band also has the knack of embedding melody with the monstrous brutality on “Crusade”. Anyone with even an inkling of death metal affection should give this album a listen. Mixing the finest of Euro death Keitzer is a formidable band with an armoury of tunes to create the sound that even the most battle weary death metaller will totally submerge themselves within.
(8.5/10 Martin Harris)
https://www.facebook.com/keitzer
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