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Truppensturm > Fields of Devastation > Reviews
Truppensturm - Fields of Devastation

Sooooo bruuuutalllll - 92%

Noktorn, February 21st, 2008

What a debut! 'Fields Of Devastation' was a completely blind purchase for me and damned if it wasn't a great one! Truppensturm is a fucking RIPPING war-style black metal band right out of the Blasphemy mold (though a bit more focused and coherent and modern), and this short album is probably the best you can make with the ingredients of non-stop blasting, sinister, assaulting tremolo riffs, venomous, declarative vocals, and the precisely one tempo setting of 'really fast'. And the two musical settings of 'murky ambient' or 'really brutal'.

But as you would expect, the album features much more of the latter than the former. There's a couple instances of Atomtrakt-style ambiance before Truppensturm dives headlong back into blistering black metal. 'Blistering' is really the only appropriate word to describe music like this. Only a third of the tracks are over three minutes long. The whole album is closer to twenty minutes than thirty. It's short, yes, but it packs more notes into that running time than albums twice its length. To call this 'brutal' is a vast understatement. This is what I think of when I think of truly martial, militaristic black metal. You can trace a line right from 'Panzer Division Marduk' to this piece of brilliance right here. Every full-armed blast and tormenting tremolo riff is like a fucking assault rifle going off into the faces of your enemies. THIS is true war black metal!

As previously mentioned, Truppensturm is black metal in the Blasphemy vein. This means that the songs are all COMPLETELY forward moving, with an incredible level of momentum and force driving every song. It's occasionally catchy; the best song on the album 'Black Funeral Pyre', has one of the most ominous and warlike main riffs ever, and the throaty vocal performance is also deeply fulfilling. This is a very one-dimensional style of music; the songs are composed of a couple riffs each, and the ingredients are overall very simple. But words like 'simple' or 'primitive' don't really fit as well as 'streamlined' and 'I'm going to kill everyone in your country'. Brutality truly is stupid only when it's absent (or extremely inarticulate), and Truppensturm has neither of those flaws. While it is ripping and savage, it's also very focused, very precise, and clearly carefully written.

So yes, this album is excellent and will most likely result in the spontaneous genocide of everyone in your state, so I recommend you get it immediately. If you miss Blasphemy, get this, and if you don't, I don't really want you reading my reviews anyway. Shoo.