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Nice riffs, shame about the politics - 50%

drengskap, April 29th, 2007

This split album was originally released in 2003 on the Wolftower Rex label, and it’s now been reissued by Totenkopf Propaganda. Capricornus is the erstwhile drummer of celebrated / notorious Polish black metal outfit Graveland (one of the best ever BM groups, in my opinion), and also a previous member of Infernum, Thy Worshiper, Dark Fury, and the man behind Thor’s Hammer, which was his other solo project. This split album precedes his solo debut under the Capricornus banner, Alone Against All, which was released in 2004, and at the time of writing (April 2007), Capricornus seems to have ceased all musical activity, although the release schedule of English label Supernal Music does still contain the second Capricornus second album At Any Cost, so we shall see.

First up, we have four tracks from Capricornus. ‘Sun Wheel On The Helmet Of Steel’ has a great chugging mid-paced riff, and Cap’s gruff vocals are quite intelligible – at least by extreme metal standards. Musically, what stands out is the drumming, which is fast and precise – hardly surprising, as Capricornus is best known as a drummer. I'm not really sure that this is black metal, though – it seems to me more like basic mid-paced death metal, something like early Bathory or Slayer, and I think this is also true of Thor’s Hammer. The song ends with a brief excerpt from a vintage German marching song. ‘War And Courage’ follows – much faster, almost thrash metal. ‘When The Hell Is Full’ returns to the chugging pace of the first track, mixing heavily fuzzed guitar with eerie, drifting keyboards and plenty of blastbeats – this is more like black metal as I understand it. Finally, the short instrumental ‘Fenrir Unleashed’ blends high tremolo guitar with ambient atmospherics not unlike some Graveland songs.

Der Stürmer hail from Greece (hence the ‘Polish-Hellenic Alliance’ part of the title), and this release is the first in a series of four split albums that the band made between 2003 and 2005. They have also released two full-length albums. Their five tracks commence with ‘Sons Of Thunder’ – faster and punkier than Capricornus, with distinct RAC (Rock Against Communism) and hardcore influences. ‘Revenge Burns Eternal’ begins with an excerpt from a speech by Hitler, then moves into a slower-paced song. ‘…Bis In Den Tod!’ also begins with a crackly archive recording of German oration – the slow, doomy riff on this is pretty catchy and this is probably the best of the Der Stürmer tracks, but again, I don’t really consider this black metal, it’s more like blackened thrash with hatecore influences. ‘The Nailbomber’ is a fast and brutal tribute to the crimes of David Copeland, the guy who detonated three bombs in London during April 1999, and it begins and ends with excerpts from his police interrogations. Der Stürmer’s final track is ‘H.H.!’, a cover of a Schwarze Sonne song.

OK, there are a few things to say about this release. As you’ve probably worked out for yourself by now, whilst the black metal credentials of this album may be debatable, there’s no doubting its National Socialist tendencies. Totenkopf Propaganda operates under the aegis of The Pagan Front, the leading NSBM organisation. Now, I don’t have a problem with NSBM per se. Many of my favourite black metal bands are NS in one way or another – Burzum, Graveland, Hate Forest, Nokturnal Mortum and others – but I have to admit that this album is too crude for me, both musically and especially lyrically. Call me a hopeless romantic fool, but I really prefer listening to songs about forests, wolves and Wotan, rather than ethnic cleansing and nailbombers. ‘The Nailbomber’ in particular really bothers me. I don’t really see anything to admire in David Copeland’s deranged actions, and I was in London and walking down Old Compton Street (which, I must point out to Der Stürmer, is in Soho, not the East End as they seem to think), on the weekend the bomb went off in the Admiral Duncan pub. And I'm not, as it happens, a ‘queer’. But nails don’t discriminate, and it could have been me caught in that blast. Come to that, it could have been me in Brixton (or ‘Brigston’, as Der Stürmer have it) or Brick Lane too – they’re both places where I've been at one time or another. I'm not a ‘nigger’ or a ‘paki’ or an agent of ZOG either – but nails don’t discriminate. Just something to think about…

An above-average split. - 70%

Kriegsminister, May 17th, 2004

Although I'm very fond of Capricornus's efforts with Graveland and Thor's Hammer, I have never been too enthusiastic about his own eponymous project. I guess the first problem was that I never really saw the point in his having two solo projects, particularly when the other one was so much better. I suppose that leads to the next complaint in regards to this matter: I always thought this solo effort was a little too rough around the edges. Now that his attention is more focused, however (precipitated by the "dissolution" of his other band, Thor's Hammer), I would say that this work represents the full emergence of Capricornus as a band-in-full rather than a mere "project."

To that end, Capricornus's half of "Polish-Hellenic Alliance Against ZOG" is as unambiguous and direct in terms of aesthetics as it is in its ideological message. The music itself brings to mind a combination of anthemic fist-pounding traditional metal in the vein of, say, Motörhead right along with a decidedly more extreme set of forebearers such as Tormentor or even some Bathory. The production is also very tight and very textured, which is a marked improvement (to say the least) over prior releases done under the Capricornus label. The end result is a competent and consistent musical outing that is every bit as militaristic as one might assume. The real problem, however, is that there is a very pervasive feeling of "hey, haven't I heard this before?" Sadly, the answer would seem to be "yes." While Capricornus has definitely come into his own as a musician, there is nothing truly innovative to be heard here. As a result, the Capricornus half of this split is highly satisfying, but really only in a somewhat narrow sense of the word.

Der Stürmer's contribution enjoys many of the same positive qualities as Capricornus's, but it also suffers from many of the same problems. Der Stürmer's sound is obviously different from Capricornus's, but at the same time it reminds me almost exactly of Honor (the Polish band who released the 'Raiders Of Revenge' split with the aforementioned Graveland) and other bands I've heard a million times before. That's not to say it's bad: on the contrary, I think I like Der Stürmer's half of the split even more than I like Capricornus's half. The problem, in my opinion, is that Der Stürmer is held back by their own conception of what they think people expect from them. I admittedly had not heard much from this band prior to this release, but what little I did hear sounded much more inspired and much more genuine than what is presented here. The band is very proficient at what they do, but I feel as if they're holding something back in compositional terms and they're trying to make up for it through their (obviously) enthusiastic playing. The end result is a fast-paced and uncomprising aural assault of blackened thrash, but it can only work so well so many times.

On the whole, this split is enjoyable and I'll hand it to both bands for sticking to their guns. It's the best work I've heard put out under the Capricornus name and I suppose it's representative (if not a simplification) of Der Stürmer's overall aesthetic. Still, this split manages really to be only "above average" and it's not likely to go down in history as one of the most earth-shattering works in extreme metal. In listening to this, I feel as if both bands are on the verge of something great but are intentionally holding themselves back for whatever complicated reasons. I don't think this is something I would recommend to people who are new to this type of music, but that's mainly because it was made with established fans in mind (or so it would seem). It's good music to listen to if you're trying to pass the time, but I'm not sure how much replay value it has after the initial few listenings.