KOMMANDANT are back. This American dark and furious black/death metal act is back, with their fifth full-length release, "Titan Hammer," released on 20th January 2023 via Aeternitas Tenebrarum Musicae Fundamentum.

Our first song for discussion is the open piece "The Arrival", with a surge of the instrumental onslaught of blistering pace of brutalisation and aggression instrumental work of blast-beats, tremolo picking and intense vocals -by the time you, the listener, have reached the half-way mark of the opening song-that volume should be hammered (and your eardrums oozing with blood) past that eleventh-decibel mark. Another song I'd like to mention is "Sublimation of Resistance", the fifth song on the album, where the blistering pace of brutalisation continues from the first-four pieces - soon as the listener hits that four-minute mark of the song, the drums change into this mechanical-military drumming. At the same time, the vocals transcend into this military-dictatorship vocal work (this gives the listener the idea of what KOMMANDANT and their music are about).

And eventually, the last track for discussion is the sixth song, "Spannungsfelder", which invites the listener with an industrial drum work and (cold and dark) ambient instrumental soundscape - with that feeling of war, death, and nuclear winter on the horizon.

Musically if you are not familiar with KOMMANDANT and their music (you're missing out), unlike myself, I'm familiar with KOMMANDANT and their brutal-war music, so having to write this review upon their new release "Titan Hammer", is an extreme-metal wet dream for me. At the same time, "Titan Hammer" is like a non-stop extreme express train with the spoiled rotten fruit as a topping -where the music combines (like a nuclear fusion warhead) together the chaotic & blast beat-driven drum work of MARDUK and the brutality/primitive and savage goatish-hell atmosphere of "Bestial/War Metal" within their musical spectrum - "Titan Hammer" provides and delivers the listener ears with ear-blasting assault of perfection with the craftsmanship, musicianship, production and composing of the music and lyrics. At the same time, "Titan Hammer" is intense, bleak, heavy, brutal and dark, which consists of instrumental art of a pounding torrent of black metal riffs and tremolo picking, nuclear-assault of the drums with various tempos, fills, beats, etc., while the vocal work is dense and bleak with nasty/bilious voice.

As previously stated, while the guitar is the torrent of the music, it's the drum and vocal work that captures the mood and atmosphere of each song and the music and lyrics - which are inked about war and death -(again), giving the listener the idea of what KOMMANDANT and their music are about. In my opinion, this unforgiving war and death-themed black/death metal has been rolling out music for over a decade and has no signs of slowing down. At the same time, KOMMANDANT wears their music and style on their sleeve, like a military insignia.

So, if you like your bestial black metal with a bit more power behind it, then KOMMANDANT is for you.

Appendix, there are no YouTube videos available for this album.