Fatal Command: Limited Edition CD

Get your denim and run for cover: They are rolling again! Two and a half years after their infamous wake-up call “Send Them All To Hell”, Heavy Metal’s saviours Pänzer have returned to the scene. Their agenda: Make Metal great again! Schmier needs no introduction. Like few other figures in the world of Heavy Metal, the Destruction bassist/frontman is essential to this music, simultaneously being one of the genres’ icons and an embodiment of its virtues. A lot has happened since he founded Destruction in the southernmost corner of Germany way back 1982 and thus invented German Thrash Metal along the way. And not for the best, as Schmier sighs. “Contemporary Heavy Metal sounds like kindergarten,” he gruffly complains. “Just look at the bands getting really big right now: Pop melodies and nonsense.” This is why Pänzer are here. A band, formed for just  one purpose: To celebrate and to praise true Heavy Metal.

Their first attack was launched in 2014. With “Send them all to Hell”, the band (at this point simply known as Panzer) seemed to appear from nowhere and unleashed everything there was to say in their hymns of steel. Next to singer and bassist Schmier, guitar legend Herman Frank (Victory) and drummer Stefan Schwarzmann provided the necessary force to devastate the land and to bring back the eighties in all it’s traditional glory. They didn’t continue without casualties, though. Herman Frank left the band in 2016 to solely focus on his solo endeavours. Consequently, they needed a replacement. And found it right under their noses: Swiss guitarist V.O. Pulver (Gurd, Poltergeist) not only produced their roaring debut, he was also helping out live on several occasions. Schmier didn’t stop there, though: “We felt the need to feature a second guitarist to focus on some solo work.” They found what they were looking for in Sweden: Pontus Norgren, Hammerfall’s guitar wizard and a real bloke. “Pontus is huge! He nailed down most of his solos while being on tour with Hammerfall through the United States. He built a little studio in the back-lounge of their tour bus and was working his ass off after every single show.”

What’s really remarkable is that every single member in this band is doing it for his first love ever: Pure fucking Heavy Metal. Thus, “Fatal Command” is a dream come true for all you eighties disciples out there, a massive offering of aggression and melody, a bow before NWOBHM and German legends Accept. “Playing this music evokes a lot of memories. Of course we don’t sound modern or original, but we don’t want to in the first place! The sole purpose of this band is to praise our roots. We are playing the music we grew up with.” This they do with vigour and a vengeance: Wouldn’t it be for the solid and huge production, this album would appear to come straight from the eighties! High velocity, razor-sharp riffing, triumphant leads and refrains smelling of raised fists, leather and rivets. “We knew from the very beginning that we had to surpass our previous efforts,” Schmier recalls the creation process of “Fatal Command”. “Hence, we focused completely on the two guitars.” Which roughly translates to: Twin guitars, twin guitars, twin guitars! “Herman had a very specific style of composing to which he clung quite fervently,” the frontman continues. “I mean, that’s alright, he’s a brilliant songwriter. This time around, though, we were free to do whatever we wanted to do. We wanted to cover the whole of the metallic eighties – and did quite well, I think.” Schmier, ever the master of understatement!

“Fatal Command” is wearing the insignia so many current bands are lacking, a bold statement against wimps and posers. What’s missing to become the absolute Heavy Metal war-machine? A full-grown tour, of course! Until this will become reality next year, Pänzer swear a solemn oath on “Fatal Command”. They will be true to Heavy Metal in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. They will love it and honour it all the days of their lives until death does them part. Amen!