Final Detonation

Witchburner belong to those bands who don´t intend to reinvent the wheel. They just want to make quite a lot of noise without becoming unfaithful but staying authentic. They don´t set the focus on commercial purposes, they are interested in thrash metal and nothing else. In doing so, they cannot deny their German origin. Their old-school riffs remind me of (early) Destruction, Violent Force or Iron Angel. But these Teutonic legions are probably the most excellent role models. I therefore think that there is nothing wrong in continuing the work of these legends. Anyway, really original music is rare.

Perhaps the stereotypical cover might not be an eyecatcher, but at least it makes sense because it is linked to the lyrics of the title track. The hymnic and dogged "Final Detonation" is predestined to be performed live. Slow-moving and humourless, it provides a contrast to the majority of the other pieces that are more furious. Immediately following the title track, "Immortal Fighters" lives on its rapid leads. It is fair to say that these two songs embrace the entire spectrum of this album. And it is also right that both are among the best cuts that this release has to offer. But fortunately there are more thrash hits to discover. "Invisible Violence" speeds without taking any losses into consideration while the lyrics of the programmatically titled "Thrash till Death" put a big smile on every insider´s face, because Witchburner list their idols of the eighties. "Warlord (Ruler of the World)" starts with an interesting riff, increasingly gains speed and turns into one of the most gripping tunes. Besides, there are simple, but effective outbursts like "Forest of the Impaled" or "Bloody Countess" that keep up the pace. Only the mediocre "Master of Hell" is unconvincing as it sounds weakly after the raging "Fighting Forces". But who cares? Let´s make a virtue out of necessity, this is just a good point to grab a new can of beer.

The nagging of vocalist Andy does not offer a great variety but at least he presents some Schmier-like shrieks. The production could have been more powerful, the expected wall of sound fails to appear. But one gets used to it and I do not want to blame underground musicians for a small budget. I assume that they made the best of the situation. It´s just a pity that they were not able to catch the aggressiveness of their live performances on this album. Fortunately, they proved with their most recent output "Bloodthirsty Eyes" how intensively their music can be produced.

I'd never been much of a fan of Witchburner, but their 2001 album Incarnation of Evil threatened to change my opinion, with some truly vicious riffing and vocals that brought the whole primal black/thrash aesthetic to bear. They spent a few years dicking around with some EPs and split recordings after that, but returned in 2005 with Final Detonation, which it not actually a 'final' anything, but more of the same. There's a consistent, level production value here which some of their previous efforts might have lacked, but I actually found the writing to be all too straightforward in its worship of old Sodom, Kreator, Destruction, Possessed and Slayer, so much so that there are few if any riffs that capture the bestial quality that was rampant in the 80s.

It's just a steady, unswerving homage with the appropriate cutting leads, old school Mille/Tom Angelripper gremlin vocals, and doesn't really explode in your face like some of their older tunes ("German Thrashing War"). Everything from the rapid "Iron League" to the Slayer-like, evil intro of "Master of Hell" is executed with sincerity, and the crisp battering ram tone of the guitar ensures that the material is something more than lifeless, but it's not until the 5th track, "Thrash Till Death" that the riffs found any register on my conscience. Sadly, by this time I already had a much better "Thrash Till Death" ringing around in my skull, and the rest of the album also stakes out its share of lyrical derivation "Alcohol Patrol", "Bloody Countess", and so forth. There is one song in there, "Warlord (Ruler of the World)" which I found to be fairly engaging with a few guitar lines that might have been cult classics were they birthed in another era, but this is heavily outnumbered.

The primal drive behind black/thrash metal is foremost its razor, ripping level of intensity and excitement, and though Final Detonation is not exactly crossing the finish line at a turtle pace, it just lacks for more than a phoned in feeling of restless discontent. It only ever concerns itself with being adequate and never with tossing the torch over the gathering crowd and actually burning the namesake witch. It's definitely not the measure of its full-length predecessor, and if given a choice, I'd probably even listen to 1998's Blasphemic Assault over this. Success seems to ever elude this fairly long term German act, and with an album like this, it is not difficult to reason out why.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

I've heard a great many, and this has to be among the very worst German thrash bands.

I tried giving them another chance, but again they fail to deliver at all.

The production is flat and empty in an attempt to sound old school. The guitar is quiet, and the riffs are all weak junk everyone's already heard before. The vocals are pretty boring, and mostly monotonous with the occasional squeal which sounds pretty forced. The drumming is merely acceptable.

Every song exploits the same drum beat at almost the exact same tempo. There isn't an ounce of complexity, song writing flair or originality to this music. It's every scrap riff from every early thrash band to make it anywhere left for Witchburner to pick up and paste together. And the worse thing isn't even how generic or simple it is, it's that there is just no spirit in the music. It's like they're all playing while sedated.

The songs are again rudimentry and the lyrics as generic as they come. Take every thrash stereotype there is, extract any excellence or intensity out of it, cut it into a dozen uneventful tracks and you've got Final Detonation.

I suffered so you don't have to. Even if you happen upon it in a bargain bin, save your money.