Pure war!!! What the hell is going on here? Being not that familiar with warhammered Death / Black Metal in general, I fell onto my knees as soon as the poor CD was forced to play. This is pure fuckin' Armageddon!!! I was aware of Bolt Thrower's militaristic fuckin' weighty Metal, but In Battle are more brutal, skin-ripping grind crushing non-stop-blasting Viking War Metal! The battle has begun, believe it or not!!!
In Battle - surely well known to fans of the specific genre - was formed in 1996 by Odhinn members John Froleti Frolen, Ostlund and drummer Wiklund with Setherial's Sjodin. The band signed to Austria's Napalm label and released their eponymous debut in 1997. In Battle's line up for the 1998 album The Rage Of The Northmen was limited to the duo of Wiklund and Frolen. The band grew strong again in 2003 with an updated line-up. Joining John Odhinn Sandin and John Frolen would be ex-Diabolical guitarist Hasse Karlsson, bassist Chastaintment and drummer Aeon (a.k.a. Nils Fjallstrom). This line up recorded the mini CD Soul Metamorphosis, subsequently gaining a label deal with Cold Records, Metal Blade's sub-label.
To the core: In Battle play brutal Death Metal, with a rapid and destructive tempo. The music is varied and very assorted, altering constantly between being conquered by the drums or the guitars, affirming most do not grow up to be uninteresting or unexciting. The guitar chords are merely dominated by primitive and fast aggressive riffs, only in limited songs' parts switching to something more melodic (let's say...). Songs like the opening crusher Shunned By Life or the show-no-mercy Soul Metamorphosis track will definitely tear your head apart, even if you 're not "that much into that kind of Metal music.
Produced by Erik Rutan (Hate Eternal, ex-Morbid Angel) in Tampa, Florida, Welcome To The Battlefield has to offer pretty technical guitar effort and a drummer who is in love with doublebass playing! I won't quote on the vocals performance, since we 're talkin' 'bout an album named Welcome To The Battlefield... What else did you expect??? The sound is crystal clean (Florida & Rutan can both convince you so...) depicting a band with style similar to a mixture of Vital Remains, Hate Eternal and maybe a little bit of Deicide. So, I guess, the only resemblance with Bolt thrower is the spirit...
If you are a fan of In Battle, then you must have already purchased the CD, so raise the Middle One to me for what I commence. But if you 're not (like me), here's a chance to give a credit to a band worth working, obviously skilled and endlessly ready for war!!!