Sturmtiger - World at War 1914-1918 (2014)

Originally stationed in Denmark around 2003, Sturmtiger eventually jumped ship to London, England, where over the past few years they've released three demos and three EPs before unleashing, World at War 1914-1918, a blackened death metal album based around the first great world war. War is by no means an uncommon subject amongst other underground metal bands, hell, Bestial Warlust was covering the subject over twenty years ago and others, such as, Axis of Advance and Destroyer 666 have carried the war cry, and of course Marduk's devastating, Panzer Division Marduk, is the ultimate black metal war classic. So, where does Sturmtiger figure into the bunch? Well...

Kicking off with a jovial intro, or rather a sample from Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination, the album quickly blasts fourth with, For your Fatherland, a pummeling and somewhat catchy number that recalls Revenge and Angelcorpse in its blistering ferocity, while, Tank Attack, opens with the samples of hellish warfare before covering similar ground as the previous song. Sturmtiger's tunes are pummeling, dark, raw and fucking ugly to the core, intermingled with relentless percussive blasts, heavy ass thick guitars and growly death roars leading the charge into battle.

As the album continues through its thirty eight minute duration little new ground is covered, in fact, none at all, but what results is a solid enough foundation to catch my interest. There's enough good hooks to get me on board, as well as, the quick flashy solos go perfectly well with the chaotic nature of the bands music, and in some strange way I found a few of the songs to have honestly catchy parts going for them. There's plenty of samples to go around and the booklets decorated with war paintings, thus hammering home the point that these guys are darn passionate about this war thing.

The final two songs are taken from the Sturmtiger 10" picture disc, which originally saw release in 2007, and also shows a slightly different side to the band. Here the music is a bit more underdeveloped, more rehearsal-ish production wise and with visceral raspy screams instead of the nowadays growled approach. The songs also bare Danish titles, which probably means the lyrics are in Danish, although I couldn't possible tell you since the vocals are rather intense.

All in all, World at War 1914-1918, is a decent record, its enjoyable enough for what it is, but by no means anything that's going to reach classic status years from now. On the other hand, if you have a thing for war themed barbaric blackened death metal than Sturmtiger might be something you'll end up digging immensely.

"This war, like the last war, is a war to end war."