Infernal War / Kriegsmaschine - Transfigurations (2010)

With a decade and some years worth behind me of black metal listenership, I have to admit a country's scene I've generally overlooked is the Polish one. Of course, years ago I heard Graveland and the early Behemoth recordings, but aside from that the only Polish black metal bands (off the top of my head) that have entered my ears are Mgła, Gontyna Kry, Massemord, and the subject of this review, Kriegsmaschine and Infernal War. Here on both Infernal War and Kriegsmaschine's latest release, the split titled, 'Transfigurations' we see both bands metamorphosing into something different.

On Infernal War's sophomore release, 'Redesekration: The Gospel of Hatred and Apotheosis of Genocide' the band played a familiar style of high speed black metal not unlike Marduk, but with more of a driving force and relentless energy whereas Kriegsmaschine on their debut, 'Altered States of Divinity' had a rawer style of blasting black metal with some catchy melodies and some occasional eccentric qualities that seemed to bring Deathspell Omega to mind. However as I've said, already, some changes have come to both bands.

Infernal War kicks off this split with, 'Primal Degradation,' which has a short ambient intro to it while the next couple of minutes are no more than mid-paced and sort of catchy, but as the song continues eventually some blasting parts enter, but the music manages to remain quite memorable and alternates between a faster blackened death metal style to the earlier mid-paced sound. 'Into the Vortex of Naught' once again opens with a short ambient intro before a mid-paced droning riff appears and eventually the song unfolds quite similarly in a speedy blackened death metal style, while, 'Incipit Chaos' concludes this split with another song that is just the same as the previous two, but nonetheless quite impressive. The three songs from these guys show immense potential and due to the catchiness and the impetus nature within them I've found myself coming back to these songs constantly since buying this split a few weeks ago.

Kriegsmaschine's side of this split opens with, 'Onward Destrudo,' which features a brief sample before diving headlong into a pummeling, tight, bulldozing and aggressive piece of music that has both its speedy parts, but also some slower droning and atmospheric mid-paced qualities, which are just astounding! Musically once again blackened death metal is what were dealing with here and in the case of these guys the production is much cleaner and the guitars have not nearly as much reverb or treble as their debut release did. The bands second and last song, 'Fear and Loathing in Gethsemane' is quite simply stunning. The song unfolds fairly similar between both blasting and droning slower parts, but I found this longer eight minute song to be catchier and far more ethereal in its delivery, while still retaining its brutal edge near the end for one last blast of crippling insanity.

'Transfigurations' surely serves as a turning point in both bands career's and while some reviews seem to speak ill of this release I found this material to be just as exciting if not slightly better at times when comparing it to their previous assaults. I know I'll personally be looking forward to hearing future releases as well as going back to those older releases I mentioned and giving them another go too!