Feuerwalze

Welcome to the Somme. This is the last sentence of the promo text for “Feuerwalze”. It needs a lot of cynicism to write such a welcome. More than a million soldiers lost their life or were injured in 1916, more than 600.000 on the side of the Entente and more than 400.000 German soldiers. And probably no one of us, not the author of the promo, not the reader of these lines and definitely not the writer of this review would have survived a day there without shitting and pissing their pants in fear. But come on, welcome to the Somme, why not?

Minenwerfer are back with a vengeance. “Feuerwalze” is another full-length with a fantastic artwork, even though there was no possibility to choose a picture like the iconic and unique one they took for “Alpenpässe”. This one was and still is simply second to none. But in terms of music, Minenwerfer have found a way to reflect the inhuman conditions that characterized the battlefields at the Somme. Constant artillery barrage pummels the listener. Honestly speaking, the permanent battle noise is at the expense of some melodic ingredients, although “Eternal Attrition” houses some less ferocious sections too. Moreover, I have to admit that I would not call the music black metal, because it lacks spirituality, mysticism, occultism and all the other things that give this style its special flavour. By contrast, Minenwerfer revitalize the true horror of the battle. They want to bring back reality (or what we think could come close to the reality 107 years ago). Thus, atmosphere does not play a big part here. The only focus is on deadly violence, just as it was at the first day after the preparatory drum fire. More than 20.000 English soldiers were killed, because the German shelters had remained largely intact – the blackest day of the English army ever. The slogan “lions led by donkeys” was born in view of the courage of the normal soldiers and the blindness of their commanders. Anyway, Minenwerfer deliver 20.000 snare beats per song in continuous fire mode and the guitars rather create a threatening monster of noise than more or less usual melody lines. Perhaps “Feuerwalze” is no unique work, but surely far away from the standards of black or death metal.

“Nachtschreck” with its great guitar lines at the beginning is less brutal than the first songs. But in general, the inferno goes on and on, only some samples with German voices occur. The soldiers scream in panic or try to find a mental way out of the horror that surrounds them. But most of the time, Minenwerfer behave like a soldier who has gone insane and his last clear thought is to fire with the machine gun until the last shot of ammunition is used up. Dramaturgical suspense is dispensed with. There was no time for a break at the Somme 1916 and so there is no rest for the listener on “Feuerwalze” as well, for better or for worse. By the way, this makes it difficult to identify highlights. All songs contribute to the overall impression of mud, bones, blood-soaked ground and total destruction. The artists do not make any compromise, they realize their ambitions in a headstrong and even stubborn way. As a consequence, their fourth regular full-length does not look for new friends. It is directed exclusively to those who want to experience the ultimate horror of war (as far as this is possible) and there seems to be no question more irrelevant whether the audience will like this work or not. And believe me, it needs time to decode the single tracks and to find something like structure on this album. It takes time until the smoke clears and we can overlook the battlefield. Minenwerfer have created a morbid, terrifying monument to the suffering of the English, French and German soldiers who had to fight at the Somme in 1916. Guess we are well advised to bow down to their legacy. Cynicism is inappropriate.