Artist: Battalion
Title: Underdogs
Type: Album
Label: Silverwolf Productions

There are too many bands called Battalion. Metal Archives alone shows 9 of them, and when I received Underdogs through the post, I was all set for the latest onslaught of Belgian war themed death-grind. As good as that is, what we have instead is even better; old school Swiss thrash! Admittedly, Switzerland is not exactly known as a hotbed of metal talent, (with the obvious exception of Celtic Frost), but the land of cuckoo clocks, Toblerones, Nazi gold and the Alpine horn have produced a rare gem with this lot. One of the latest bands in the recent invasion of New Wave of Traditional Thrash artists, Battalion most definitely kill in the old way; hard, fast, brutal and covered in denim.

As soon as you hit play, opening track ‘Thrash Maniacs’ completely lives up to the billing, with a 1000MPH guitar riff before the vocals of Silvan Etzensberger kick in as a hybrid of Tom Araya, Chronos and Mille Petrozza. The style though is recent Kreator mixed with Kill Em All era Metallica, and bloody hell does it work! Listening to this for the first time on a packed train to work, I found myself nodding along with increasing purpose, nearly taking out several suits and a chav with accidental headbutts, (although the last one less of an accident and more instinct). The track changes pace midway with a break reminiscent of Metallica’s Four Horsemen, before reverting back to a frenetic thrashing blast. ‘Headbangers’ opens with a thunderous chugging riff which drives a classic mid 80s trip down memory lane, feeling like I’m back in my teens again and stifling an ironic chuckle as Etzensberger proclaims “I AM A METAL REBEL!”. The pace rises to blinding intensity on ‘Running Alone’, the drums of Sami Riedener sounding like an old AK47 as they mow down everything in their path, but the pace switches back to a more deliberate and solid level for ‘Wings Of A Demon’.

The quality never really wanes throughout, they relentlessly pound through track after track, as the Etzensberger brothers dual guitar attack winds its way up into a continuing frenzy, but the biggest change in style comes on ‘Stalingrad’, an 8 minute track that comes across like Metallica and Iron Maiden jamming together, not missing any of the clichés either. As with any song about a historic battle, there must be the quiet and reverential spoken word section in the middle, and ‘Stalingrad’ ticks that box admirably. Of course, that bit is all in German, which somehow makes it even more poetic. This is followed up with a very nice but ultimately pointless 2 minute interlude, all very sensible with calmly plucked guitars and what sounds like a whale song in the background. My guess is the plan here is to calm things to such a level that when the next song starts, the intensity is magnified, (the start of Accept’s Fast As A Shark springs to mind as a good example of this), but it doesn’t really work here, for as heavy as ‘Beggars Right’ is, it needs more pace for that to work effectively. Things are brought to a satisfactory close though with ‘Defenders’, a track with a strong Teutonic feel of power metal fused with the thrash base elements. There’s something a bit Manowar about it to be honest, but at least they didn’t go the baby oil and loincloth route.

The last few years have given us a lot of excellent music with the revival of the classic thrash sound, in particular bands like Gama Bomb, Bonded By Blood and Evile, and I’m very pleased to say that Battalion have joined the list; can’t have too much of a good thing in my opinion. Musically, this is as tight as a gnome’s foreskin, and yes it may be a bit cheesy, (the music, not the foreskin), but who cares when it’s as good as this. Even the excellent artwork is very retro, with the headbanger ripping his face off to reveal the terminator style skeleton beneath, and it just makes me smile. So, pull on the tight blue jeans, dig out the old sawn off denim jacket covered in band patches, slip this in the cd player, and thrash the fuck away like it’s 1983 again. Very highly recommended!

http://www.myspace.com/battalionofficial

Lee Kimber

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