Six Seconds Kill

I am a giant fan of Panzerchrist. They've made some of the best death metal of the last decade with Battalion Beast being among my all time favorites in the genre. But in the 90's, Michael Enevoldsen's ever changing ragtag Danish gang actually made some pretty good death metal as well. Their first album, Six Seconds Kill, easily got overshadowed by some of the bigger albums of the decade (Cryptopsy's None So Vile was released the very same year) that this band could have easily fallen into obscurity had they not released more music three years later.

But what we have here on Six Seconds Kill is essentially Bolt Thrower poked with a cattle prod a few too many times. The music here, like Bolt Thrower has that crushing "steam roller" sound in their riffing; it's very heavy. Meanwhile, they also love their war lyrics. But Panzerchrist play faster and have a more distinct lead guitar than Bolt Thrower does; and while Bolt Thrower's war lyrics seem to be more nostalgic, Panzerchrist's lyrics are just straight up misanthropic here on this album. The lyrics on Six Seconds Kill are backed up by a meanacing sounding vocalist who has some variety in his voice as he issues out shrieks and growls and is really fun to listen to throughout the album as a result.

The instruments also hold their weight in the mix as well. The guitar riffs are absolutely relentless and heavy, the drums are extremely tight and furiously played, and together they create a well crafted mix of sonic warfare. However, the tracks here seem to have the glaring problem that makes them kinda blur together and be not quite as memorable. There isn't a lot of musical variety between the songs and there isn't a lot of qualities that help any of them stand out with the glaring exception being the keyboard parts of "Halls of Oblivion". With repeated listens though, picking out favorite songs becomes easier such as my favorites "Winterlands" and "Halls of Oblivion". On the flip side, it's also easier to pick out what's weaker such as the shorter track "Panzer".

I still say this is an album worth checking out if you're a fan of older death metal. There's definitely some good times to be had here, and Enevoldsen and Lasse Hoile on drums and vocals respectively are the biggest stars of the album, though the riffs are definitely no joke either though they are again rather hard to remember on a single listen. Definitely their weakest so far, but it was also their first and Panzerchrist have a string of excellent albums to be released after the turn of the millennium. Six Seconds Kill is a nice album to start out a full investigation of Panzerchrist's discography, though their material gets way better after this.