Chicago, if you asked me what I would immediately think of with regards to the third most populated US Midwestern town I would probably go for deep pan pizzas, mobsters and music. Pizza as it’s a favourite and I’m bloody hungry and the deep pan originated there, mobsters should be obvious due to Al Capone and the St Valentine’s Day Massacre and music due to due to the sheer wealth of it associated with the place. Chicago has always had an experimental and forward thinking mindset when it comes to bands of many different genres. Forget the band that shares the same name as the town (I’m sure you would love to) the place has been synonymous with everything from blues, to jazz to house, to industrial, to grunge and extreme metal. This is where Kommandant come into the equation.
Formed by ex members of bands such as Nachtmystium and Krieg (and yes there is no shortage of ex-members) as well as other less known groups such as Dysphoria, Funereal, Contagion and the irreligious Cumchrist and Corpsevomit, the members have obviously been round the block a few times. This EP follows on from a debut album from 2008 called Stormlegion and press photos show that this lot have a penchant for wearing gas masks so you would be right guessing that there is a certain war mongering vibe going on here.
I have to admit I was expecting more of an industrial tinge to this than I got, maybe in line with Aborym. Although after a nasty grating intro ‘KK66N6ZT’ we do not really get that, this certainly keeps up with them pace-wise. ‘Anti Human Nemesis’ is a frenzied and full on assault, drums blast and batter and guitars scythe furiously. Vocalist Nick Hernandez sermonises his troops with feral rasps and spoken parts, some mangled with robotic effects, keeping things diverse. Melody bursts out from occasional leads and the music pretty much bristles and antagonises into next track ‘Codex Gigas.’ This does not clearly identify as USBM as there are times when I am reminded of Mayhem, perhaps by the vocals 1349 from the Frost like battery and at others the likes of Kult Of Azazel. Needless to say this is a good solid campaign and Kontakt has certainly been established.
The band do nothing as subtle as slow down throughout the 20 minutes of music on this EP, the ferocity is very much at the forefront and total annihilation strikes as being the main goal. ‘Sulphur Chariot’ sees the one time that things change with glistening and shuddering guitar lines breaking into an austere spoken word passage and militaristic drumming two-step before the full weight again piles up. As with all things like this I do kind of feel like I have half an album and it does make me hope that the group have plans to follow it up with a full length in the not too far distant future. If you are looking for a full on cataclysmic short sharp shock though, this is as good a place as any to check out.
http://www.myspace.com/kommandantofficial1
