Review by JD on October 25, 2008.

If I had to describe this Belgian Speed/Death outfit with some sort of a catch phrase or something to bring across what Battalion is all about... I have to go with ‘War Metal’. It makes you salute them, while they are strangling you with their raging tide of pure and unabashed sonic weaponry.

This intense four piece band delivers to you a slab of metal that harkens back to the late 80's and early 90's of Death/ Thrash metal. Brutal and uncompromising as all hell, Battalion pushes the music to the limits, without becoming cartoonish in the process. Intelligent lyrics about the wages of war, and bringing out their own views on all of it... make you pounder things like this a little harder, while their slashing music pummels you ears.

The album opens up with the tale of world war two battles with ‘Mechanize Blitzkrieg’ ed and then blast through ten more songs that cover everything from the Japanese taking over parts of China in WWII (‘Ten Thousand Corpse Ditch’) to the bloody drug wars waged by street gangs in all major cities in the world (‘Curb Stomp’). They do not scrimp on the truth, or on what has been overlooked as lessons locked in the annals of history.

Battalion are astute and they seriously give you the facts with both barrels squarely in the face... and the production used here just adds to the power and strength that intelligence always play when you are serious. In short, this is a record that just not feeds the raging need for our in your face music, but also reminds us that collectively we are not anywhere close to being as stupid as non-metalheads really think we are.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 9
Production: 8
Originality: 8
Overall: 9


Rating: 8.2 out of 10