Having a best friend who is heavily invested in Black Metal has always been a blessing, it means he can share his Blackened finds with me and with him I can share my Slamming Death Metal passion. As a result I find myself forever at the bustling edge of modern Black Metal and one such band whom we have both followed since the very beginning is German war torn quintet Kanonenfieber. Their Sabaton-like display of telling a historical story of world war lends itself well to Metal in general, I mean what is more devastating than war? Combine that with a huge Metal sound and you’re in for a winner. Having released their debut Menschenmühle back in 2021 along with a couple of following EP’s it’s high time we get a second album with Die Urkatastrophe put out through a pretty major label with Century Media Records.

Grossmachtfantasie opens with brilliant scene setting world war ambience, haunting, foreboding and laced with some delicate melodic guitar work that occasionally hits with epic Metal flare. A seamless blending follows into the first real opening song Menschenmühle, a song that slaps with thundering Black Metal aggression akin to the likes of 1349 or Dark Funeral whilst holding true to the themes of Melodic Black Metal also. Essentially imagine taking Sabaton, Dark Funeral, 1349 and Rammstein and mixing them all together, that’s Kanonenfieber. Sturmtrupp continues these similar ideas only ramping up the hook heavy nature of this band, if prior releases were a benchmark then this album only serves to go even harder, truly better than any Kanonenfieber I have heard previous, and that’s saying a lot. Next up is Der Maulwurf which keeps the memorability at the forefront, honestly a huge track. I feel almost bad to say this but this appears as some of Kanonenfieber’s most accessible work to date, there are quite a few borderline mainstream sounding riffs and nods, but honestly it works and for a band with this sort of gimmick (much like Sabaton) I’m all over it. At the end of the day an occasional hard hitting simple riff is a popular concept for a reason, it bloody works! Making sure we know this is a Melodic Black Metal release at heart is Lviv Zu Lemberg, some seriously striking memorable guitars here. It seems like a good chance to highlight the vocals at this point too, I would define them as traditional Black Metal with a twist, that twist being a range of more guttural almost Death Metal vocals at points to signature Blackened rasps, another element that keeps the record fresh and interesting. Rounding off the first half of the album is Waffenbrüder, which further exudes the fabulous production on this album with its crisp tone. I’m not always one for such a clean sound in my Black Metal but here it’s just brilliant. Overall another ripping, catchy banger on a pretty flawless release.

Reinforcing the Rammstein-like anthemic German lyrics comes Gott Mit Der Kavallerie, another one of the albums best songs it has to be said. A perfect marriage of melody, destruction and hooks in every instrumental and vocal aspect. Playing with more modern Metal fire is Panzerhenker, simple but highly effective, and again with massive vocal hooks. At this point I’m almost worn out, truly the sheer amount of talent and memorability is overloading, there is seldom a second wasted throughout the whole album. Ritter Der Lüfte does little to spare my weary body too, another banger filled with a big sound and epic Melodic Black Metal flare. Verdun gives some final respite, oftentimes I write off these kinds of interludes but here it’s not only much needed but also works with the whole gimmick surrounding the band. Ausblutungsschlacht similarly offers a more sluggish tone, it feels as if the album is drawing to a close and I quite enjoy this downward trajectory. It’s a song which equally shows a different side to the band too, a song which seems more emotionally driven than some predecessors. I was thinking, do we need any more after that, and then Als Die Waffen Kamen appeared to round things off. acoustic, clean singing, striking and perfectly fitting, the perfect ending to a flawless record.

We all know what it’s like when you follow a band from their beginnings, quite often you want to hold onto that artist as if they’re yours and when they start getting bigger you get selfishly sad. The sweaty pub gigs are replaced with big arenas, overpriced beer and mainstream audiences. However, there are rare cases where bigger really is better and Kanonenfieber is such a case. I know they’re completely different musically but having watched Sabaton in small venues and recently at Wembley I can attest that if you lean into that kind of gimmick and take it to a larger stage it really pays off. Amon Amarth is another band that comes to mind with this. Sure the music is always foremost but the stage show can really be something too. I’m going off-piste but essentially what I’m trying to say is this album and indeed the band is crying for the big leagues. I can honestly see Kanonenfieber paving the way for a new age of Black Metal, an accessible broad sound that might capture the attention of budding future Extreme Metal fans.

(10/10 George Caley)

https://www.facebook.com/Kanonenfieber

https://noisebringer-records.bandcamp.com/album/die-urkatastrophe-2