Now there's a sure fire winner for this year's "Most German Band Name" award. Hailing from Dresden, Death Metal three piece PANZERKREUZER (it means 'armoured cruiser' apparently) are a supremely heavy band, but they've also managed to get a decent amount of variation into their debut album. This isn't a record that'll change the musical landscape by any means, but it's a solidly reliable genre piece that purists will love.

They begin proceedings with an upfront and brutal piece of Death in the form of 'New Chelovek.' They make an incredible racket considering there's only three of them and frontman Markus has a growl so low register, there's a good chance you'll experience an unwanted bowel evacuation when it kicks in. This is a track that'll leave you expecting six more rounds of sonic bludgeoning, but then they take a different approach.

On the following 'Aurora,' they relax the accelerator and ease back into a comfortable Death-Doom stomp. It's still unashamedly gruff and nasty, but they're just as comfortable grooving along at a mid-pace as they are at raging. It's an approach they perfect later with 'Damnatio Memoriae,' which recalls AHAB jamming with SIX FEET UNDER and they're also not afraid to throw in a sweet instrumental interlude into the middle of the album as well.

'Red Flame' then kicks things up several gears before slowing into a nicely monged out finale, while 'Armoured Fist' rounds it all off with over eight minutes of colon-troubling Death Metal. This last one veers between ominous plodding and up-tempo chord blasting, but unfortunately drags it out just too long and gets tedious before the end.

ll of which makes 'Aurora' a decent if unspectacular debut. They haven't distinguished themselves as future leaders of the underground, but they have poked their heads out far enough to justify keeping an eye on them. This could be the start of a horrible friendship.