Panzer – Send Them All To Hell

I have been passed the new Teutonic super group ‘The German Panzer’ debut album “Send Them All to Hell” to review for the masses, before you say anything I know the cover states Panzer. However a band from the 80’s hailing from Chile have the rights to the name Panzer. However for the rest of this review the band will be known as Panzer, plain and simple. So who is in the new super group I hear you say? Well we have 2 members of Accept, Herman Frank on guitar and Stefan Schwarzmann on drums. They are then joined by Marcel Schirmer who is best known as the vocalist and bassist of Destruction, one of the big four Teutonic thrash bands (along with Kreator, Sodom and Tankard for the uneducated or youngster amongst you).

So what exactly do Panzer bring to the table? Well just what you would expect when members of Accept and Destruction get together? You have the powerful blistering heaviness riffs, tank rumbling bass and blasting drums, while the vocals have to get a special mention as Schirmer monstrous vocals fit the music and themes perfectly. It has to be said that the better material on the album is the more furious upbeat tempo songs such as “Death Knell” (which is a great opening song), “Hail and Kill” and “Temple of Doom”. Panzer also add an extra dimension to some of the up-tempo songs such as “Temple of Doom” which has a Motorhead vibe to the song, while “Freakshow” is more reminiscent of straightforward ferocity of 80’s thrash. When Panzer do slow the tempo down then the results differ, the song “Panzer” is a good heavy intense song with a more ‘marching’ sound over laying the groove and blistering guitars. However the song “Why” is probably one of the weaker on the album, but hats off to Panzer for the attempt and diversifying their sound.

So overall Panzer deliver an album that is more aggressive and heavy than an Accept album, however it is more melodic than the straightforward “Balls to the Wall” (for the German metal fans!) aggression of Destruction. They also draw influences from other elements of metal such as Judas Priest, Motorhead, fellow German Power metal bands and a sleuth of others. If you like/love Accept or Destruction then I would highly recommend this album to you, if you like fast heavy metal then you will probably love some of this album. My only point is that this is an album that I can see getting heavily played once first purchased but then lost in your collection when you purchase newer albums, but I can’t wait for the 2^nd release to see if they can build on this debut album…

SCORE – 7 out of 10

ALBUM INFO

Track List:

1… Death Knell
2… Hail And Kill
3… Temple Of Doom
4… Panzer
5… Freakshow
6… Mr. Nobrain
7… Why
8… Virtual Collision
9… Roll The Dice
10… Bleed For Your Sins

LABEL
Nuclear Blast

RELEASE DATE
1st December 2014