German Thrashing War

Being old-fashioned is one thing, having no ideas is another. Witchburner walk the thin line between these two poles. Their sound was never destined to win innovation awards. On the bizarrely titled "German Thrashing War", the band wallows in the more or less malodorous traditions of Teutonic thrash metal. But the guys know their craft and, equally important, they are authentic. Thus, the here presented output avoids embarrassing elements with great ease. It offers no frills thrash with a tiny dose of black metal and only wannabes will whine that variety is missing.

In accordance with the song material, the dirty production follows the rules of the old school. The rattling snare is its problem child. It sounds hollow and seems to be in danger to get lost. The lyrics are slightly defective, too. "Rape in Ecstasy", the title says it all, gives me a headache. In order to make things quite clear: each and every line sucks. Compared with this rubbish, "Only Blood Will Remain" delivers an almost philosophical approach (on an amateurish level). The other tracks present the usual nonsense, but that is no big deal. "This is German Thrashing War / Resistance futile" - so be it.

The songs themselves form a punchy unit. Despite their archaic structures, they do not lack of fairly surprising breaks, for example after the second chorus of the title track. The mellow guitar line of "Rape in Ecstasy" that sets in after two minutes is also unpredictable. Generally speaking, the coarse guitars sound relatively dull and stand in contrast to the nagging vocals. The voice seems to be that of a sadistic dwarf who suffers from sleep deprivation. I am sure that I do not need to emphasise that this is a good thing.

My favourite track is "Arrival of the Last Storm", because its raw atmosphere is smartly combined with rapid drums and murderous riffs. The double bass increases the degree of ruthlessness and the vibrant chorus crowns the song. Fortunately, the title track is almost on a par with this brilliant piece. But no song falls below an acceptable level. This can also be said about the cover version at the end of the EP. Due to its stomping approach, it sounds like the second part of "In League with Satan" or another leftover of "Welcome to Hell", but of course it is the slightly modified "Witchfinder General" of the eponymous band. The deep and crude sound of this piece, originally released in 1982, leaves no doubt that everything was better in the good old days. Well, this thesis is surely debatable. I do not want to miss a big number of albums, although they were published after the turn of millennium. But one thing is certain: outputs like Witchburner´s "German Thrashing War" are very welcome, regardless of its year of publication.

Despite their general lack of contributing anything new to the genre of black/thrash, Witchburner have kept themselves busy in their adoration of the past, releasing a good number of splits outside of their full-length studio albums. They also released a pair of EPs in the early 21st century that bridged the years between Incarnation of Evil and Final Detonation, and German Thrashing War is the first of these, clocking in at under 20 minutes that unfortunately peaks quite early with the title track. This is a pretty limited release, and Witchburner certainly engaged in the idea of collector's items in the vein of Japan's Sabbat or Abigail (in fact, they've done a split release with the latter), so there's not a ton of value here if you're not the consummate completist.

The title track itself is a finely produced burst of energy with some solid riffing and incredibly vocals that hearken back to Incarnation of Evil, or more appropriately the early releases of Kreator, Destruction and Sodom, and this is certainly one of the band's better songs career-wide, but the other songs manage only to trail behind. "Only Blood Will Remain" and "Arrival of the Last Storm" are both decent (the latter also being released as a 7" EP single the following year), but "Raped in Ecstasy" wins the silver medal here with its wild vocals and more subtly entertaining guitars. The band have also included a cover of "Witchfinder General" from that band of the same name, dubbing it "Witchburner General". The old school NWOBHM/rock riffs stand as a stark contrast to the faster originals, but they do a bang-up job of mashing it into their own beast thanks to the vocals and great, groovy lead sequence.

German Thrashing War is well produced, even more so than Incarnation of Evil which seemed pretty inconsistent despite its superiority to their older records. The guitars are authentic, honest, and very bright in the mix, and the vocals are carnal and memorable. Unfortunately, the music isn't always the greatest, and apart from "Raped in Ecstasy" and "German Thrashing War" itself I can't think of much reason to spin it, even with the classy choice of covers. But if you're a die hard for the style of black/thrash that Witchburner espouses, enough that you tracked down and purchased all their other albums, then you should give it a listen or two and see if it's worth thinning the wallet.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

The title and the cover of this album say it all. "German Thrashing War" and a zombie with a guitar throwing the horns? You know it's good old German thrash.

But it's not so much good as it is old.

This is a throwback to the German thrash of yesteryear. A mix of old Kreator, and some boozin' speed metal akin to Motorhead. The songs are dirt simple, and sound like they were written and recorded about 20 years prior to this EP's release.

The first song sounds like it must be an unreleased Kreator track from the Endless Pain session. The other songs not so much, but the Kreator comparison is impossible not to make.

The drummer delivers just what you'd expect. Moderately fast, to fast thrash beats with the occasional slow down. It's disposable and totally unremarkable, honestly. It would help if the bass drum were louder or more pronounced, because the drums don't have much kick to them. The guitar riffs are simple, normally three chord punch-drunk verses, and leads are somewhat menacing evil sounding, but not very fast, memorable or impressive. The vocalist also clearly attempts to impersonate another German thrash great, with a snarl that sounds a lot like Schmier from Destruction.

There's not much else to say. Like I said, the songs are very, very simple. The production values are too thin, and it lacks the extra speed and aggression that would take this to the next level, and negate the ultra simple song writing (such as with Kreator or Sodom - though even those bands are not this simple) - so it thus fails to impress in really any way. That by no means is saying that retro thrash isn't worth doing, but bands like Desaster, Violator and of course, Destruction are doing a much better job. Despite that, it's still nice for background music or worth a listen if you're a diehard thrash fan.