Germany is a country that has produced some fine metal talent, which is why I was intrigued to sample "Progeny Of A Social Disease" by FEAR CONNECTION. The band seem to present themselves as very professional and seem to be very well connected in the industry. As such, I was very excited to review this latest effort from the Bremen based bruisers. "Progeny Of A New Disease" opens with "Wandering Souls", which is a solid start. A very ominous guitar overlay setting the tone for the album, and some heavy chugging rhythms to ensure that my head is nodding along in approval.

Whilst listening to both "Fight The Plague" and "The Ravishment", I'm getting vibes like that from "Death" during the LEPROSY album era! Whether the production has been configured in that way deliberately I'm unsure. But I'm enjoying the raw heavy feel and Rolf's inhuman demonic growl! "Vengeance" opens with the meatiest of bass solos! Nice to see the often forgotten instrument given some attention. We're also treated to a second vocalist who offers a higher mid-range scream to add variety. The guitar riffs are simple yet effective at this point.

"Democracy Dies" opens with what appears to be a voice over/insert from a new broadcast. "Government is more of a threat to liberty", the message is repeated. There's clearly a political message here, but sadly my gut reaction was "wow, how cliché"! I'm not sure what statement they're trying to make hear. Which is a shame because there's some excellent guitar work on display. So much so, I had to question whether there really was only 1 guitarist on this song! They do well to fill out the sound with only 1 guitarist and bassist.

The longest song of the album, at around 6 minutes in length, is up next. "War Inside My Head" is my favourite so far. The vocals are the clearest so far with much better annunciation, whilst maintaining the heaviness. At around 3 minutes, the pace slows right down! Which I'm glad of! I was concerned that the album was getting repetitive at this point. FEAR CONNECTION show that you don't have to go fast to be heavy. The bassist also gets the chance to shine again with a pretty neat bass fill. Although the blast beats returning towards the end of the song was pretty impressive too! The album starts to get interesting when we hear "Cerebral Attack" . I'm really enjoying the blackened death metal vibe provided by the guitar with the riffs based on the chromatic scale. True KVLT style!

Like "Democracy Dies" , "False Prophets" opens with a similar political voice over, this time with ex-US president Donald Trump, echoing the words "fake news". Again, I do wonder what the actual message is and whether they're just trying to be political for the sake of being political at this point! The album finishes with what I think is easily the strongest song, "Time To Die". It's a brilliant advertisement for the band. There's a wonderful melodic-death style guitar riff whilst the rhythm and vocals are also solid throughout. They clearly saved their best for last. It makes me wonder why the rest of the album couldn't have been written to this standard!

Overall, there is some neat guitar work and general musicianship. However, when a band decides to go down the political route, ideally they should be all in with no holds barred, making their feelings and emotions known towards the statement they're trying to make. Otherwise, it doesn't come across as believable. Unfortunately, this has tainted what could have been a good album for "FEAR CONNECTION". With that being said, if you are looking for an album that pays homage to an earlier classic era of death metal, "Progeny Of A Social Disease" is a fine representation of that!