Kanonenfieber – Die Urkastrophe Review

Whew! I can say that Die Urkastrophe is Kanonenfieber’s best work yet. This album will definitely be in my top albums of 2024.

With that said, let’s get into it! 

If you aren’t familiar with this band, I’m going to give a quick rundown. Kanonenfieber is a German anti-war melodic death/black metal band. Noise (of Non Est Deus fame) started the band after receiving his great-grandfather’s diary, which contained writings from the frontlines during WWll. The songs within this new album are based on factual reports, original documents, and accounts from surviving and deceased soldiers of the First World War.

If you are anything like myself, lyrics are usually a huge part of the music experience. However, for this album, with everything being sung in German, I didn’t have to understand the lyrics to be able to feel the emotion behind it. The passion throughout this album is so powerful, that you can hear the pain, anger, defeat, and also the fatigue as you go through each track. One thing I truly admire is how they incorporate accurate history into all of this. Many songs in the album have parts where it sounds like soldiers on the frontline singing. During early wars this is how they kept spirits up, and was also seen as a discreet way to complain about the conditions they were in. So I really enjoyed hearing that detail. 

Kanonenfieber does an amazing job of capturing a monumental moment in time and transporting you there. The intro immediately throws you into the trenches. Having audio clips from speeches of political leaders to the intense war horn sound in the background. The raw emotion throughout this album takes you on an emotional ride. There is a great variety in the riffs, vocal styles that are a mix of death and black metal, drum-heavy parts, and even some more modern metal elements throughout. The added sounds of guns being loaded and noises you would typically hear on the frontlines, create an immersive experience. It all comes together to create a dark, serious, tension-filled cohesive album. Every track has its own distinctive sound, and the album as a whole feels like multiple stories being tied together. To put it simply. It sounds like war. Controlled chaos. 

I think being able to hear the song and read the translation real time will help make it an even more enjoyable experience for those who don’t understand German. I will be adding a video below with translation to the song “Panzerhenker” that was released as a single from the album. This one is a great representation of a song they would have sung during that time. I also feel this song is a pretty good representation of the album as a whole. Panzerhenker in particular was the most hair-raising for me. The lyrics are so real in a dark sense and filled with so much heaviness that carry the true heart of a fighter. The gutturals, differences in riffs throughout, and the touches of death metal while maintaining that dark/evil trimmed melodies of black metal create a perfect concoction of aggression. You’ll feel immersed in this battle while listening.

Some songs stick out more than others. “Sturmtrupp” had a surprising sound, and one that was definitely worth noting for it’s obvious nu-metal influences. You could even say I got “Down with the sickness” on that one. (Pun definitely intended). I was not expecting that sort of mix going on, but I’m not mad at it! It worked quite well. 

Overall I loved how Die Urkastrophe ended with an acoustic song that was very mellow and heartfelt. This album started out strong and stern and ended quietly and filled with a lot of pain. It was very beautifully done and the message was well received. I could listen to this album on repeat and get emotional each time. It’s amazing how they can create something so heavy yet so heartfelt at the same time. If you are a lover of history, aggression, controlled chaos, melodic black/death metal, and blast beats. I highly recommend it. They tick all the marks with this one!

Die Urkastrophe will be available on September 20th 2024 from Century Media Records!

Preorder your copy here: https://t.e2ma.net/click/fn6ivl/39b5lidg/fnulhgb

Or on the Noisebringer Records Bandcamp: https://noisebringer-records.bandcamp.com/merch