Review by Greg on March 25, 2025.

"This album is dedicated to the victims of the First World War, so that they will not be forgotten. May their fate, more than 100 years later, be a warning to all future generations."

I'm here, more than 100 years later, to humbly say in response that mankind hasn't really learned a lot after all. But that's a story for another day.

I don't think I need to waste time (mine, but especially yours) on a lengthy introduction to Kanonenfieber. The project of mysterious German musician Noise is by now a significant phenomenon in the eyes of the world, with many including their latest sophomore and supposed new magnum opus Die Urkatastrophe in their 2024 AOTY lists. For sure, the band has a distinct character. Those conceptual, authentic lyrics about life during one of humankind's bleakest pages, taken straight from the letters of those who witnessed those horrors first-hand, combined with their industrial-tinged blackened death metal sound, make them pretty much unique, to the point I'd put them in the small group of acts that can be said to truly sound like themselves, which is no small feat in the overcrowded, saturated metal scene of today, for sure. Some more words are needed, though.

First things first, allow me to pull a thorn from my side. It might be that today's creative bankruptcy of the video world resorting to all kinds of sequels/prequels/spin-offs/remakes/live actions/you-name-its is really annoying the shit out of me, but something about Die Urkatastrophe felt off to me from the very start. Menschenmühle didn't quite do it for me, but it still seemed to me a perfect one-off, a lightning-in-a-bottle moment if you will. It was an absolute novelty, unique in so many ways that my jaded self just waited for the moment the artist, now under the wing of a slightly bigger label, would start releasing more and more watered-down versions of it, in order to please an audience incapable of accepting whenever something ends. Yeah, huge leap on my part, I reckon. To clarify, I'm definitely not assuming that Noise's vision was solely to cash in on that overnight success, nor suggesting that he should have just laid the project to rest, for sure – yet, something surely gave me that impression.

The artwork is one of the main culprits, for sure. Menschenmühle exploited an original anti-war propaganda poster made by Hungarian artist Mihály Biró, and it was striking, almost iconic in its brutal simplicity and color scheme. Following that, for every other Kanonenfieber release, Noise made sure to seek somebody who could replicate that style to the smallest detail, instead of pursuing a similar route – I mean, the subject is exactly the same, but I can't believe that one was the only known poster from that age, right? The result is under your eyes: every artwork is a paler and paler copy of the firstborn. Same washed-out orange background, same giant skeletal general doing all kinds of misdeeds, same crowd of small men waiting in line, even down to the detail of some falling away from the German captor's hands... it all screams lazy to me. Not to mention it doesn't have nearly the same impact and sincerity – although it surely fares better than the previous singles, at the very least.

It's a bit of a shame, but nonetheless, on to the music, accordingly introduced by the speech of the Reichstagspräsident Johannes Kaempf at the beginning of the First World War, assuring you my judgement wasn't tainted by the above preconceptions...

...and yet, Die Urkatastrophe sadly opens up with its worst and most uninspiring song: 'Menschenmühle' is simply a parade of the most basic non-riffs under the incessant blasting of a drum machine I'd define as 'inhuman', not because a human being wouldn't be able to play that (far from it), but because it feels inhuman, as in, anything but exciting. Adding to that, the refrain seems to follow the almost exact same metric and rhythm of the verse, soon giving way to an effect some may call 'martial', while I find 'monotone' and 'repetitive' would be more appropriate descriptors. If it weren't for the melodic bridge, appropriately claiming that 'Die Welt versinkt im Krieg' (transl. 'The world is sinking into war'), and the extremely brief reprise of the intro 'Großmachtfantasie' which – let's be honest here – was evidently part of the song but was subsequently separated since nowadays you're a total nobody if your album doesn't feature an introductory track between 1 and 2 minutes, the guitar's presence would be nigh useless. The takeaway is easily that cutting off the track altogether would have been for the better, and it'd also have left the decidedly better 'Sturmtrupp', with its several tempo changes and actual riffs (albeit nothing to write home about), of that melodic black/death brand I like, as the opener.

Yes, because, luckily, 'Menschenmühle' appears to be just a puzzling misstep, as the following compositions are allowed more and more room to breathe. Said 'Sturmtrupp' is an easy highlight, shining especially in its second half, and 'Der Maulwurf' is another little gem, with a surprising half-sung chorus that is every inch as desperate as the subject matter, hitting you like a punch to the gut. A trick that Kanonenfieber should attempt more often, and if you don't value my opinion about it, you can trust my goosebumps when I first listened to it.

So, all in all, my initial fears were unfounded: Die Urkatastrophe is very far from being an insipid rehash of Menschenmühle. It's more of a typical sophomore album, the work of an artist spotting (what they think is) their best weapon from their earlier material and focusing on it, discarding the rest. The most notable outcome of that is the unusually predictable song structures, standing as a simple verse-chorus-verse-chorus-etc. leaving little to zero room for surprises – you get no, say, 'Die Schlacht bei Tannenberg' for sure. The debut was more ambitious at face value, while the songs here are far easier to assimilate, which I'd call a plus since they also tend to sound way less meandering than before. In any case, 'Gott Mit Der Kavallerie' might be the dullest and most cookie-cutter this copy-paste approach gets (badass and defiant beginning, lyrical twist when things start to look grim and oh let's insert a poignant arpeggio interlude here to mirror it, tragic ending), only with a particularly uninspired refrain. And while minor tweaks to the formula do occur – 'Panzerhenker' making a fast verse and slow chorus, for once, or 'Ritter Der Lüfte' directly opening with the chorus – we're talking about the bare minimum of songwriting, more or less. There's this constant pursuit of the big, booming chorus all the time, meaning each new one attempts to out-solemn the previous. To Noise's credit, luckily, he mostly succeeds, although some of them are ran into the ground so much I'm guessing he was evidently pleased so much he couldn't stop repeating them.

I reckon I keep sounding harsh, but that's because I think the album could be so much more than this – when Kanonenfieber manage to drop brilliant moments like the chilling 03:15 onward in 'Lviv Zu Lemberg' ('Es gibt keinen Ausweg', 'There is no way out'), crowned with a simple, quiet, but no less nice solo, it's hard to be disappointed. Same goes for the genuinely moving passages like the bridge in 'Waffenbrüder', or heading towards the end, a song about the Battle of Verdun, which can only be tragically slow and somber. 'Ausblutungsschlacht' is indeed a partial exception to the bleak, clinical mood of the other tracks, due to the addition of symphonic reinforcements during another overlong but striking chorus, that are obviously still a long way from being misplacedly uplifting, mind you, rather accentuating the bravery and the guts of all those unlucky souls finding themselves fighting in that bloodbath (like in the whole conflict, after all). A last moving tribute, until the closure once again left to an acoustic ballad, which this time is less upbeat and more Motörhead's '1916' than its past counterpart 'Verscharrt und ungerühmt'.

Maybe the biggest deal about this all is that it's fucking memorable shit – I've been working leisurely on this review on and off since the album came out, and I still never had a strict need to listen to it again to refresh my memory, and I can assure you it doesn't happen very often. Although, on the flip side, I wonder if it's the best compliment I can make to it. The album puts all its cards on the table with the first listen, with nothing that might reward repeated spins, unless you're trying to count how many times that goddamn gun-loading sound effect appears in 'Der Maulwurf'.

Of course, if you only have time to listen to one war-themed album of whichever genre and you're torn between Die Urkatastrophe and Sabaton's The Great War, get immediately away fro—I mean, this one is an easy choice. But against Minenwerfer's Alpenpässe, or 1914's The Blind Leading the Blind, the competition is extremely tough and I'm not as sure of the winner, although this one is arguably the easiest to get into. In any case, opener aside, 'Gott Mit Der Kavallerie' is the only song I'd call flat-out uninspiring, as all the others end up being serviceable enough while they're on, despite also getting old fast. Now, I'm too much of a coward to say that many authors of those letters didn't have that luck, so I'll just leave it as an indirect quote and look like I'm condemning my own tasteless jokes. Kanonenfieber, unlike me, did an admirable and earnest job of paying a respectful tribute to the millions of casualties in one of history's darkest pages, and that shall be commended and appreciated. It just didn't seem like this epochal, colossal work that many colleagues are trying to sell me, at the end of the day.

"There is no glory in war. Everyone loses – their lives, their souls, their humanity."

Rating: 7.4 out of 10

Review by Raphaël on December 12, 2024.

When I saw the magnificent cover art by Daniel Bechthold, in the style of Biró Mihály (1886 - 1948), considered as the founder of political poster art, I was immediately intrigued. The artwork depicts a German general putting people in a meat-grinder, which is fundamentally what war is, using normal people to advance whatever goals and ambitions of the few in power. In the case of WW1, the unquenchable thirst of capital owners for never-ending increasing profit. Some Russian dude wrote a good book about that!

Anyway, bands that use war as its main source of inspiration can be overly cheesy and just end up glorifying it. Although there is quite a bit of cheese all over this album (in the form of earworm melodies), thankfully Kanonenfieber is not one of those bands! Kanonenfieber is but one of the many projects of multi-instrumentalist, Noise and it's one of his more "accessible" projects, blending black and death but, in their more melodic forms. The melodies on Die Urkatastrophe will take you on a journey, through a wide range of emotions, all surrounding heartbreaking stories of war and its devastating effects. So, if you're still wondering, no, it absolutely does not glorify war, it's more of a warning. Thankfully our leaders are following the important lessons of history… At least Kanonenfieber understands!

Their bancamp page sums it well: "As with its predecessor, Kanonenfieber's second album Die Urkatastrophe is based on factual reports, letters and original documents from the surviving and deceased soldiers from the First World War. Its intent is not to glorify, because there is no glory in war. Everyone loses – their lives, their souls, their humanity. This album is intended to commemorate the countless victims of WWI. War is often depicted in an abstract way, through numbers and statistics."

Back to the music, there is a mournful beauty about the melodies Noise is crafting. Even if I do not speak any German, the music makes you understand, it's full of images. On 'Lviv Zu Lemberg', the main melody is both epic and conveys pure sadness, so I know it must be a heroic tale about a battle won but incredibly costly, where many souls where lost. The chorus of 'Der Maulwurf' is a pure sing along earworm, reminding me of those songs miners used to sing while going to work, at least, in movies. On 'Panzerhenker', there is huge and loud chugs that sounds like cannon fire, which makes sense because the song is talking about a battle in which tanks were heavily used. Also, the song title translates to tank slayer, so everything makes sense. 'Ausblutungsschlacht' is about the longest and costliest battle in human history. It's a slower song, full of atmosphere, heaviness and that epic sadness so characteristic of Kanonenfieber, ending with a soft piano. The album ends with a soft acoustic guitar folk song, filled with sadness but also hope, as the war finally ends.

The album sounds phenomenal, with the production sounding huge and clean, with every instruments perfectly balanced in the mix. This album is a great discovery, for fans of melodic and blackened death metal, it's yet another band added to my list of bands I need to see live!

Rating: 9 out of 10

Review by Felix on September 23, 2024.

Ah, another album about the Great War. How original. The artwork teaches us that the Reich wanted to kill each and every foe. Of course, it refers to the Western Front, Verdun, and the other places where so many young men died a “patriotic” and completely senseless death. The Germans played their part in this in the person of Erich von Falkenhayn and others, but so did the Western Allies, if I'm not mistaken. On a side note, before Germany declared mobilization, the Russians and the French (albeit only just an hour ahead of the Germans) were already on their way to the future battlefields. The cover of “Die Urkatastrophe” ignores this, but okay, it’s just art and does not need to be historically true.

Lyric-wise, Kanonenfieber also focuses on the German side. Maybe they want to show the Teutonic attitude, this suicidal fascination for a war that dominated at the first days of the war. Now they are historically correct, but this misguided mindset was no German phenomenon as well. So let’s come to the music. Kanonenfieber plays a kind of industrial black metal with wannabe catchy choruses (“Der Maulwurf”) and I promise you, I have rarely heard more boring and meaningless black (death) metal. Maybe the industrial approach is a good match with the historical fact that World War I was the first mechanized, completely dehumanized war in the history of mankind. If this was the intention, it makes sense, but this does not mean that Kanonenfieber’s style awakens even the slightest emotions in me. The computerized hammering of the quasi-opener “Menschenmühle” just sucks and the thought “black metal without atmosphere is no black metal at all” comes to my mind. (And I also don’t think that the album really dishes up death metal – if this is the case, it is far away from my Bolt Thrower / Grave / Vomitory understanding of this style.) The guitar lines are just as pathetic. Fortunately, a few exceptions confirm the norm. “Lviv to Lemberg” is a track that surprises with lively and coherent guitar work. Anyway, the song is too long, its silent break makes the track’s intensity implode. “Gott mit der Kavallarie” presents a promising guitar line at the beginning, a really good one and perhaps the best of the entire album. The fanfare-like chorus is based on it, that’s cool, but once again the slower part in the middle of the song devalues the number to a certain degree.

In terms of sound quality, you can represent every opinion. For example this one: oh, it’s so powerful, so clear, violent, and heavy. A legitimate point of view, doubtlessly. But I just feel attacked by soulless sterility. Especially the voice lacks authenticity and charisma, in particular during the first songs. As the album progresses, things get slightly better or I just get used to it, who knows. One thing is for sure, these sometimes death metal affine Eisregen-vocals-for-beginners which meet Rammstein-on-extreme-metal may have their appeal for some. I beg your pardon, I just find it infantile and seeking for cheap shock effects. And I have another problem with the full-length: the longer it lasts, the more monotony gains the upper hand. Despite a few good moments, individuality is not the most striking feature of the single songs, to say it politely. The album would have benefited from a length of 40 minutes because for the meager amount of variety that the formation offers, the disc is about 10 minutes too long. But maybe monotony is a good thing here because the worst track is the totally different non-metal closer that wants to be emotional. Too bad, it is just useless and its German lyrics remain superficial and weak.

Summing up, World War I is a very interesting topic. It surely makes sense to read Clark’s “The Sleepwalkers” or McMeekin’s “July 1914. Countdown to War”. I could recommend more books, but due to the fact that this is a music-related archive, another recommendation is Minenwerfer’s “Feuerwalze”. I know, their mix of historical samples and extreme music is not too far away from “Die Urkatastrophe” (at least the album’s name hits the mark), but simply better. Not to mention the title track of Saxon’s “Call to Arms”. This is really a song that pays a worthy tribute to the soldiers of both sides who died for nothing.

Rating: 3 out of 10

Review by Michael on September 2, 2024.

Since Lemmy sang about the horror in the trenches of the Great War, young guys bleeding to death, no matter on which side they fought for on “1916”, World War I became more and more popular in the metal scene. Nowadays countless bands write about this horrendous tragedy and probably one of the door openers for the next catastrophe, World War II. Kanonenfieber was founded in 2020 in Bavaria, Germany, and is going to release their second regular studio album in September. Their debut Menschenmühle (“Human Mill”) was already a very harsh and brutal black metal album with smart and interesting lyrics but they have evolved since 2020.

Die Urkatastrophe (“The Primal Catastrophe”) is both – more accessible but also slightly more uncompromising. First of all, it is interesting that they (like the band already did on their debut) use German speech samples from 1914 – 1918. This gives the songs a very special flair and somehow you can almost feel the mood the soldiers felt back then. But of course, with having all the deaths and war insanity in mind you always feel this bitterness remembering that all this destruction and hatred was just for nothing. The lyrics are all kept in German and everybody who knows this language knows that it isn't the softest one. It is more harsh and sounds unkind and this aspect matches really perfectly to the songs. Apropos hatred and bitterness – this is projected into the music very well, especially through the vocals Noise is using. In every song you have the feeling that he is full of hatred and bitterness. Let's take 'Menschenmühle' as a first example. The chorus is nagged and sounds slightly psychopathic and this expresses very well what the lyrics mean:

“Deutschland, Deutschland Kaiserreich (Germany, Germany imperial)
Kriegessucht und Wahnkrankheit, (addiciton to war and delusional illness)
Deutschland, Deutschland Vaterland (Germany, Germany fatherland)
Mordessucht im Wahnverstand“ (addiction to murder in delusional illness)

Although the songs are all really good and there is no filler in sight, there are two tracks that are a little bit more outstanding and got me instantly. The first one is a calmer one which turns out almost epic and heroic….if there weren't the bitter lyrics. That one is 'Waffenbrüder' which tells the story of two German soldiers who have known each other since their childhood and go to the front in France. So the story goes on, one of them gets wounded on the battlefield and has to go to the hospital. “Fortunately” he returns after some weeks and goes back into battle. But I guess that you can imagine how the story for both of them ends… just like the song very sad. And then we have 'Gott Mit Der Kavallerie' (“God With The Cavalry”) which is a very catchy and thrash-orientated song. Distorted vocals give the song also some death metal flair. But when the chorus sets in, this is a really heavy inferno. Musically it is an equivalent to a galloping cavalry. But yet again, there is no space here for any happiness because when the German soldiers meet the Belgian artillery, it doesn't turn into anything good for either one of them or their horses. Underlined this gets through the machine gun-like drumming in that part.

You'll probably find more of your personal favorites on the album very quickly, since as I said, all songs are top-notch. I would say that Die Urkatastrophe is a really good, well-produced album with interesting and thoughtful lyrics and it puts the horrors of war into good words and music and makes it a little bit easier to put yourself into this dark era of the 20th century. This one is recommendable for everybody who likes bands like 1914, Panzerfaust, or Minenwerfer because they don't only go lyrically but also musically in the same direction.

Rating: 9 out of 10