Welcome to the Battlefield

For those who already know In Battle, you pretty much know what to expect. Blastbeats, double bass, and endless speed. Expect machine gun/assault rifle sounding drums and heavily palm muted guitars, and expect no end in the assault.

For the most part, In Battle don't stray from that credo. They do, however, switch over to a more death metallish sounds (while past releases were deathy black metal, this is more blackened death metal.) As well, with the exception of John Frolin, who played guitar when this was made, this is a completely new band. While they had a full band on the s/t debut, that lineup got thinned to just Otto Wiklund (Drums, vocals) and Frolin (guitar, bass) and after Rage of the Northmen he left the band. Frolin reformed the band and they did the Soul Metamorphasis demo. From that came Welcome to the Battlefield. Though there was a new drummer, the sound is still recognizably "Wiklund metal", as the drumming is in the same vein as the Wiklund's style.

The guitars took a step up after "Rage" and here they are all over the place, much like the drums. Of course the bass is buried in the mix, but the same could be said of Rage of the Northmen and In Battle. The vocals and lyrics are annoying, as well, since he mainly sticks in the midrange and doesn't go anywhere else. However, again, that didn't stop Rage of the Northmen and In Battle from sucking, and it doesn't detract too much from the music. One quarrel I do have is that unlike on past releases, the vocals are more coherent and understandable. Normally that is good, but In Battle are terrible at writing lyrics. Oh well.

This isn't really intelligent music, and it wasn't meant to be. It was meant to be a neck snapping, bone crushing slab of blastbeats, double bass, guitar sweeps, and hate. It isn't In Battle's best (That award goes to Rage of the Northmen) but it sure as hell is fun to listen to. I must say I liked the band better when Wiklund was still in it, but that really boils down to personaly preference. If you happened upon their death metal years first instead of their black metal years, you'll like this era more. Nonetheless, they both do the same thing, really, which is blast away at supersonic speeds.