Be ready for Death Kommander’s offensive.
Created in 2018 in Scotland, the band is composed of Kruxator (vocals, Demonic Obedience, Ziegenhorn), George (guitar, As I Suffer Silently, Demonic Obedience), Ben (guitar), Matt (drums) and Mark (bass, Demonic Obedience). A first demo is released the same year, then Pro Patria Mori, their first album, sees the light in 2021.
The band’s main influence is Death Metal legend Bolt Thrower, so they naturally tend to play an Old School warlike Death Metal. We can quickly notice it through the introduction and those haunting but hooking riffs. The band won’t last to confirm it with Tunes of War, a solid song that tastes like blood. Raw harmonics remind us the english band of course, just like this raucous voice, that we find all along the album. Steel Reaper is next, and this continuous thick rhythmic is more than catchy, as the smashing Incoming Death. If you didn’t headbang yet in your living room, just wait for Shock Trooper and Mechanized Warfare, a raw, dirty but very effective duo! The riff machine isn’t ready to stop yet with Unnamed Grave. The song is as crude as death’s reality and as melancholic as oblivion, then Play of Death comes to roll upon us as a tank. The song is perfectly shaped for a wall of headbang on the front row, just like the weighing Flander’s Blues is made to captivate us. The warlike energy of Flamethrower and its roaring bass are next. The song is virulent, piercing harmonics join the melting, then The March accompanies us with some Punk energy on the end. Pro Patria Mori, the last song, offers a simple but devilishly melancholic riff to close the album with the voice of Tony « Demolition Man » Dolan (Venom Inc, ex-Venom).
The tribute from Death Kommander to Bolt Thrower matches the legend. Pro Patria Mori is a solid album that fully assumes its influences, and that rolls over us as an unstoppable riff machine.
90/100
