BATTALION
"Winter
Campaign" (Self-produced; 2006)
Reviewed by Christopher J. Kelter
Battalion is a fairly straight-forward death metal band from Belgium playing in an old-school style focused primarily on mid-paced tunes. “Winter Campaign” is the band’s first full-length debut which follows two demos.
“Winter Campaign” features meaty riffs and super-gruff, hoarse, shouted death metal grunts. The lyrical themes are all military related – consequently you get the carnage and gore expected from the genre, but presumably done with historical respect to past military conflicts when hand-to-hand combat was typical as well as recent global conflicts when a far greater ability to kill from afar with the use of technology was capable of the same kind of damaging effects.
“Winter Campaign” is exactly what you’d expect from a death metal release that focuses on blunt force trauma rather than technical superiority. Occasionally, Battalion’s song-writing moves away from the old-school style that dominated the ‘80s death metal scene – kudos to Battalion for employing a fresh approach when needed.
Overall, “Winter Campaign” is competently performed with no glaring weak spots. Battalion would be a perfect choice for fans of death metal looking for an “underground” act that can compete with the genre’s better known acts.
“Winter Campaign” was produced by Battalion. For a self-produced release the sound is great. The booklet presentation is well above average.
Battalion: Ruben on vocals, Pieter on guitars, Kristof on bass, and Tomme on drums. Bass also performed by Sven Janssens and Kristof Hectors.
For more information visit http://battalion.deathmetal.be.
Rating Guide:
A classic. This record will kick your ass.
Killer. Not a classic but it will rock your world.
So-so. You've heard better.
Pretty bad. Might make a nice coaster.
Self explanatory. Just the sight of the cover makes you wanna hurl.
Copyright © 2006 by R. Scott Bolton. All
rights reserved.
Revised: 18 Nov 2024 12:18:23 -0500
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