Review Summary: Bello would be a good start for those who are interested to get into the band's music. Unfortunately, both albums in this compilation reflect both the good and bad qualities that Panzerxhrist have.
Panzerchrist, good old
Panzerchrist. Generally when you think of metal from Denmark,
Panzerchrist,
Artillery,
Konkhra, and the ‘Elvis Metal’
Volbeat come to mind.
Panzerchrist have interested me from the very first moment I was exposed to their music. The band has always mixed death metal with decent amounts of black metal in a way that creates a special type of extreme metal through incredibly tense, aggressive and slightly melodic fine tunings. Their choice of war lyrics mix well with their haunting music, even if the lyrics are slightly flawed at times. After the release of
Battalion Beast,
Panzerchrist has been churning out dual-album compilations as well as their ''legendary'' five track demo ’’Forever Panzer’’.
Bello and
Himmelfartskommando are the names of the compilation albums and
Bello will be the focus of this review.
Bello
These so-called compilation albums are not like regular compilations, like those that contain tracks from various periods during the band's/artist's career.
Bello contains the third and fourth albums of
Panzerchrist, plus two unreleased tracks. The first album is called
Soul Collector and the second is
Roomservice. Both albums are considered to be collector items, especially for the fans of the band considering every single copy has sold out and no record label has come along to re-print them. There are some very powerful tracks here and of course weaker tracks, but the best thing is that each album doesn’t sound similar to one another. The lyrics for
Roomservice have been printed for the first time and the German titles in
Soul Collector have been translated to English.
Soul Collector created quite a big controversy when it was released. The main reason was that the band used lyrics that were completely focused on war (World War II) and the band sang in German. People quickly thought that this band had nazi-tie-in’s. After the first pressing of copies for the album, they were never reprinted again.
Panzerchrist doesn't subscribe to Neo-Nazi fascism, the lyrics were simply about generic themes of war. To go along with these war-torn lyrics is metal that is brutally fast (and quite possibly their fastest album to date). Immense amounts of tremolo picking patterns, blast-beats, pedal work and guttural vocals comprised the main content of this album. Everything reeks of unpleasant energy; most of the tracks boast their own evil, haunting, almost sadistic atmosphere and melodies. The album might sound interesting to most extreme fans out there but be for warned; the album is incredibly stiff and repetitive with little variation in the tracks.
Panzinfantry,
Y2War and
Black Is Our Panzer would be my only recommendations from this album and I would actually place
Panzinfantry as one of the band's greatest tracks ever. It definitely lives up to death metal standards but it is not that memorable and this album will bore most people.
Roomservice is a completely different album. The sound production is better, song variety has been improved, and there has been more focus on actual writing. This album is like a regular death metal album with a little more heaviness, but the lyrics are not so much impressive. However, this album may appeal to a wider range of metal fans than their previous albums because of the addition of more catchy, melodic and dynamic song writing.
Suicide has some really cool half-melodic and tension-building riffs while
The Creature has this great haunting atmosphere and
Death Approaches is packed with the same type of pounding heaviness like the track
Panzinfantry.
Suicide and
Roomservice are great death metal tracks and some of the best from this band. Beware though, this album does not contain large amounts of blast-beats or other raging drum patterns as in
Soul Collector (and no, this is not like melodic death metal). The bottom line for this album is that it’s much easier to get into than
Soul Colletor. But just like
Soul Collector, you will enjoy it after one, two, or perhaps three listens before the album begins to grind on you.
I think personally that the band should've released a “real” compilation with highlights from their whole career instead of releasing a two-album album mix n’mash. The bonus tracks
Jerusalem* and
Before Life** are actually
The Red River* and
Roomservice**. The sound and lyrics are the only aspects that separate them from the original ones. I would say that the band has found their own style, but they need to keep improving and maybe start to incorporate more influences from other bands.
Bello would be a good start for those who are interested to get into the band's music. Unfortunately, both albums in this compilation reflect both the good and bad qualities that
Panzerchrist have. If you want to enjoy
Panzerchrist’s music, I suggest that you get their latest album
Battalion Beast.
Positives
+ Bo Summer's has a mean vocal style
+ Good sound on the album “Roomservice”
+ The guitars in Soul Collector are very tight
Negatives
- What’s the deal with having two full-lengths and calling it a compilation album?
- Terrible lyrics in the album “Roomservice”
- “Soul Collector” is incredibly stiff and monotonous
- They should've kept the original German track titles
Recommended Tracks
-- Panzinfantry
One of the band's greatest tracks ever.
-- The Creature
A great and interesting track with nice haunting melodies.
-- Suicide
Also one of Panzerchrist's best tracks, awesome riff-lines and speed.
Final rating will be a 3/5
