Some Background
For all of those like me who do not know German, the band’s name translates (roughly) as Cannon Fever and this album (their third) The Soldier’s Fates. The band is really designed around one man who goes by the name of Noise who writes and records everything. Live he does have a band of friends to deliver the music allowing him to be up front doing vocals.
The band as such started in 2020 when Noise found his granddad’s diary written on the frontlines in WW2. He is, it seems, a keen historian and gave the notes to someone who could translate from the language they were written in and when he read them he was deeply moved and decided to write music around the stories and the horrors that happen being on the front lines of war (whether in trenches, boats, submarines etc).
The Importance Of Lyrics
I asked for a lyric sheet from the PR person, and they provided one, obviously in German but I did attempt it all through Google Translate just to get a better picture of what I am reviewing. So thanks to them for that. The album has actual factual reports from people there at the time and reading the lyrics (despite all the translation difficulties) at times is a harrowing and sad read. As for the music, this is heavy stuff. A mix of the styles including death and black metal with hints of industrial at times. It is strangely quite accessible for those who sometimes fear the heavier end of music.
There are 8 songs ranging between just under 4 minutes to just over 6, and one other piece, which is less than a minute, which is an instrumental with spoken words from Alfred von Tirpitz who, according to research, wanted unrestricted submarine warfare. He took a modest Imperial Navy and, starting in the 1890s, turned it into a world-class force that could actually threaten Britain’s Royal Navy. He also had, in my view, a world-class beard!
An Atmosphere Of Terror And Despair
Opening track “Z-Vor” (possibly “forward”?) deals with a battle in the sea of the Nordic coast involving a British ship looking for German submarines. It starts with spoken word, and when it kicks in, it has quite a hook for a heavy track. The guitar has plenty of that tremolo style playing, yet there is melody in there. The drums of course power away and get more urgent as the lyrics go “forward forward, it spits out of every pipe. The Tommy at battle distance, from the launch to the final dance“.
“Heizer Tenner” (Stoker Tenner) opens with the sounds of gun fire, an ominous bass line, before exploding into brutality matching the lyrics about the ship being hit, “The crew below deck, hidden in the hull of the bow, covered in blood and soot, stoking until the ship dies.” The music is designed to create an atmosphere at times of terror and then of despair and panic. I would say that the vocals would be easily understood by native speakers as his voice is quite clean for these genres. “Ubootsperre” (Submarine blockade) is the short piece featuring sound effects from inside a submarine with the spoken words.
Death Comes For Everyone
“Kampf und Sturm” (Battle and Storm) is, as the title suggests, a story of a sea battle between submarine and the British Navy. It is at times frantic, fast paced, heavy and intense but with moments of quiet, sometimes broken by shouted commands and of course at times we hear those sonar pings to remind us that we are watching or listening to crew on a submarine. There are plenty blastbeats along with drum fills and great riffage within the song.
Part of the lyrics go (roughly) “Bow angle, not adjusted. The eel crashes, plunges to the bottom. With dragged submarine nets, mines that tear us apart, the Brit wants to harass us, in battle and storm.”
Die Havarie” (The Accident) opens with a chant/chorus before it fully kicks in. The song tells of the death of the crew, sunk to the bottom of the sea awaiting to die, “Six hours of shortness of breath, without light and without power. Every hour, a famine. Fear is our supper.” The description of their “iron coffin” really got to me.
New Killing Zones
The album takes a turn as we move to a different battle zone. 2 songs back to back on Fusiliers. Army men. From my reading of the lyrics the areas the songs are based around are in Eastern Europe, somewhere near the Carpathian mountains. Both focus on the horrors of freezing to death and starvation. “We launched a counterattack. To reach our troops, we go over a thousand corpses, not a shot was fired” he screams.
At one point he sings about the snow being so high you had to stay upright to try and survive. Over 2000 dead just due to the cold. This is more black metal in style, vocally there is a bit of variety between screams, high pitched yelps and then low doomy growls. One short section musically did remind me of Iron Maiden but only for a short time.
The second account is from another area and the music is slower, and there are parts that have a Nordic vibe, it swings, in an almost Viking way whilst not actually being so. I imagine again native speakers could join in singing along at points on this. Possibly one of the most accessible/commercial sounding tracks musically but not so lyrically. It ends thus: “Death offered: “Take my hand, let yourself be freed from suffering.” And I move on, in the land of the dead. I lie in peaceful white. Toward home, to wife and child, I dream, frozen in the ice.”
To The Western Front
The “The Yankee Division March” is, as you can guess, about American troops. In fact, the First Division in the battle of Saint Mihiel on the Western Front. There are lyrics in both English and German on this so some of it I didn’t need a lyric sheet! (Still glad they sent one though). Thanks to the lyrics I am now all read up on the “hedgehog position“, it was a new one on me militarily! The opening is dramatic, slow methodical but builds until it twists into a blackened form. Probably the most wordy song as it tells the story of the battle. It is quite unrelenting apart from a short spell of quiet only disturbed by gunfire.
Last track “Die Fastnacht der Hölle” (The carnival of hell) is the most industrial sounding track and due to not being a native speaker so not being clever enough to spot distinctions it reminds me in large parts of Rammstein, but that could be because they do the chanting of a soldiers march (left, left, left, left, 2, 3, 4) which appears on one of their songs. It also has that military style drum beat. This is about the battle of Belleau Wood in France. The ending lyrics (outside of the chorus) I feel, capture the mood: “I gargle my own saliva. The gas mask takes the air. Stomp on, kill on, I long for the coup de grâce. In the forest of Belleau, God is not watching us.”
Final Thoughts
I absolutely love this album. I admit I am into history (I have spent ages looking up the battles, and other information about positions etc) as well as being a fan of heavy music. This is a marriage made in heaven for me but about hell! The music is excellent, lots of great riffs, pounding drums, switching between death and black metal mostly yet being quite accessible perhaps due to the quality of vocal delivery and some of the choruses (as such).
Even if you are not massively into the heavier end reading this, please give it a go. It could be a doorway into new adventures musically. If you love blackened metal then you will bloody well enjoy this. One final comment, the album is a slight mix of new material and songs from previous EPs which have been slightly altered and re-recorded. So if you have all their catalogue, you will notice some of the songs are the same. I hope personally they bring the band to the UK as I would love to see this music performed live. (Scotland would be even better, just saying😁)
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