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A promising underground super group release riddled with faults.-
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| Kommandant: Kontakt |
Black Metal, Death Metal, Thrash Metal
Planet Metal
September 11th, 2010
- KK66N6ZT - 1:15
- Anti-Human Nemesis - 3:05
- Codex Gigas - 3:31
- Der Maschinenraum - 4:27
- Sulphur Chariot - 4:33
- The Genesis Reaktor - 3:35
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| Review Information |
Release length: 20:25
Review posted on August 26th, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 6.5/10 |
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
Stormlegion (2008)
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| EP(s): |
Kontakt (2011)
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| Demo(s): |
Iron Hands on Scandinavia (2006)
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| Review |
Kommandant hails from Chicago, Illinois, and is clearly geared towards being more of a conceptual band, at least in their appearance. The group is also a bit of a super group for those who have their eyes and ears to the underground Metal worlds. Formed back in 2005, this Black, Death and Thrash Metal hybrid act ffeatures former members of Sarcophagus, Krieg, Cianide, Nachmystium, and plenty more among the five members who make up this band. Given this list of impressive bands, the dread sets in quickly that the album will fall prey to being another super group album that doesn't live up to expectations. Given some less-than-favorable feedback to their debut full-length album, Stormlegion, and the feelings one may have towards Kontakt, the band's follow-up EP, being issued on September eleventh, a day of infamy for those of the United States, one can only brace for impact.
While the American Black Metal scene is growing considerably, there are not many bands out there that can take that melancholic, frostbitten sound and incorporate it to the North American approach of music, especially with including some Death and Thrash Metal ideas. For the most part, Kontakt seems to stick closer to the more tundra-based frostbitten musical concepts of Black Metal, and honestly it does a decent job at it. The main issue here lies in the production. While it's clear that Kommandant is trying to capture that style of blackness, the production value does not do a lot of justice for it sadly. The guitars do feel sharp and set up a very sinister tone, working well with the music to actually give a rather cold and grim atmosphere to the music. However, that's about where the audio stops being somewhat impressive. The quality is rather clean and modern, and the bass guitars are pretty hard to pick up on in the mix. The audio actually has a higher pitch to it that simply doesn't work too well, and the drums, while well executed throughout the EP, really could sound a lot better. The bass kicks have a decent click to them that ends up having them sound more like additional snares. The snares are loud in the mix to begin with, and the cymbols are just not as impressive, but at least are levelled well enough that they sound equal despite which part of the kit they are being played on. Vocally, the album is handled like a traditional Black Metal effort of a rhaspier approach, but a bit deeper in it's rhaspier sound to give it a slightly commanding approach, which of course works for the physical appearance of the band, and the more authoritive approach the band seems to undertake with their music and atmosphere next to the somewhat frostbitten approach.
Kontakt is made up of six tracks that give the release just over twenty minutes of life, which is fine for a release like this. Of course, the first track, "KK66N6ZT" is an instrumental track, but it's mostly just distortion and noise from the guitars in a pulsating pattern. You could argue this is meant to be more like radio static, building to a commanding Black Metal assault that goes with the whole war and oppression theme, but in the end it just doesn't do much to set up what's to come. The introduction bleeds into "Anti-Human Nemesis", which winds up sounding like a typical early Black Metal effort, but with a little more intensity behind it. The vocals show off the commanding approach with simpler lyrics and an equally as simple performance, and if it weren't for the guitars and their transitioning between more atmospheric passages and generic Black Metal riffs over the faster pounding drumming, the song simply would not do much to really grab the listener. The slower parts of here work well to maintain the atmosphere given by the band's overall presence outside the music, and that really does save this track. But, "Anti-Human Nemesis" does introduce a little bit of a cheap modern track to the vocals that gives a spoken word section a more snarling and inhuman sound, which actually kind of violates the atmosphere thanks to it's more modern and technical sound compared to the dark and grim atmosphere the band gives through the track.
From there, it's essentially more of the same, just performed better. The higher pitch leaving less of a bass drive to the album does not really help things, but as you progress through the EP, you do find some good tracks. "Codex Gigas" is a pretty strong Black Metal track that does have that more militaristic atmosphere to it with a grim environment backing it up. The band's overall performance sounds stronger, and not as bland and uninteresting as it does in "Anti-Human Nemesis". The drums even sound more intense and vibrant against sharp, faster guitar work and a more energetic vocal performance. The only let down here is that the track seems to just stop and go with guitars that again try to establish an atmosphere similar to "KK66N6ZT", except here it does work for Kontakt's benefit and come off more a desolate sound of sweeping wind that goes into "Der Maschinenraum". It's sad that "Codex Gigas" does not really end on a high note, but the seemless transition between the two works well, especially with the more intriguing atmosphere of "Der Maschinenraum" and the all around stronger song and performance that really captures the best of Black Metal and Death Metal ideas into one track, creating a very intimidating track. However, "Sulphur Chariot" doesn't really keep this sound that has been building since "Anti-Human Nemesis", which is broken due to slower parts that simply seem like a cheap tacked on moment to push their more militaristic-style atmosphere, only having it backfire and ruin the flow of the song and never have the track get back into that more intense sound it started with. However, oddly enough, this track does find the bass shining through a little more to make a bit of a difference to the audio.
One of the other gripes to this recording is that the songs seem to just sporadically end and somehow be linked together. "Der Maschinenraum" is perhaps the worst perpetraitor of this thanks to the track starting off with a bled into section from "Codex Gigas", which also seems to end rather abruptly, and then ending with the same idea as how it started. The music ends, there's a more chant-driven humming clean vocal section for a few moments, and then it cuts to a really low audio sample of wind. If you're not listening to it loud enough, you probably won't even notice it. But, even though it does get annoying, you can't help but also kind of defend it. With the exception of "Sulphur Chariot" and even the odd guitar effects used in that track, each song on here does seem to amp up the intensity with each following track, leading to a pretty strong offering on the closing track "The Genesis Reaktor", which again also finds a bit of a stronger bass input musically as the band does manage to work in a slower, more intimidating atmosphere to the song with good transitions and have it fit the song without losing any consistancy to it, jumping in and out to the faster, more authoritive vibes of melancholy that started the song off nicely, concluding Kontakt on a much higher note then how it started. But again, the song just seems to end out of nowhere, and what's worse if you are waiting for a rather impressive ending due to how intense the song is to begin with, only to have it stop and feel like the band just kind of gave up and walked out of the recording studio on the spot.
In the end, Kommandant does a rather good job at trying to bring the cold, frostbitten Black Metal sound to a more American militaristic and oppressive approach. But, that can't excuse a lot of the EP's faults. Songs seem to just end for no reason, others are just not that impressive or ruin the flow of the EP, down to just simple effects kind of ruining the environment the band set up. The audio could have been much deeper, and as later tracks show it would have helped things out greatly if the bass were a little more present in the mix as well. Had the band, producer, or anyone involved handled this release a little differently instead of leaving it to feel like they rushed it in the studio, this would have been a rather commanding EP. Instead, it finds itself faulted too much to really make much of a difference outside of being a well orchestrated band visually and conceptually, especially for the Chicago areas. Kontakt is worth a listen, or at least sampling, and honestly if you find a copy on sale or used for a good price, it'd be a nice piece to add to your collection. It's not a release you'll sit through once and walk away from, it honestly does have some good ideas and shows promise from the band, but it's just a release that's simply really hard to get into since everything they did right seems to be countered by something done wrong.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Jennifer Steffan
(Kommandant Management).
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