Infernal War/Kriegsmaschine – Transfigurations

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The unfortunate side-effect of having a world famous band from your country is that inevitably, most bands playing in the same genre of music from that country tend to sound like them. That’s the problem with most of Polish blackened death metal band Infernal War. Their tracks off their split Transfigurations sound like a Behemoth B-side from ten years ago. They definitely aren’t bad, but the sound they’re going for has been done to death many times before. There are bits of brilliance scattered throughout their three tracks, however. Parts of Into the Vortex of Naught have a definite black/thrash approach to them, not unlike Nifelheim or newer Deströyer 666. The tracks are good, but this band would be a lot better off going straight death metal or black metal, or they’ll forever be in the shadows. Kriegsmaschine, on the other hand, handled their half of the split admirably. They have a straight-up approach to black metal that calls forth comparisons to Watain or a faster version of Leviathan. Something that Kriegsmaschine cannot do well is trying to add melodic bits to their songs. It just comes off as atonal and boring. There’s also a breakbeat-style of drumming during Fear and Loathing In Gethsemane which could be kind of interesting if used correctly, but just comes off as weird. Despite those flaws, I think Kriegsmaschine’s side of the split edges out Infernal War’s by just a bit. The production for Kriegsmaschine is better, too. This split is definitely a competent output from these two bands, but keep in mind two things when first going in to listen: don’t expect to be wowed, and keep in mind just how big Behemoth’s influence is.

Written by Jackson May
More: 2011, Albums, Black Metal, Death Metal, Quick.Play Reviews, Infernal War, Kriegsmaschine