Panzer – Send Them All To Hell.

Panzer came to be when Stefan Schwarzmann, drummer from Accept approached Destruction vocalist Schmier to form a trio along with fellow Accept member Herman Frank on guitar. Since the album has been released via Nuclear Blast Records, Herman and Stefan have left Accept to concentrate on Panzer. Normally in the music world when three established artists get together they are tagged as a power trio but with Panzer it would have to be a power metal trio albeit a lot heavier!

I’ve been a fan of Accept and Destruction for over thirty years so wondered if Panzer would sound like either of them but could not be more wrong as Herman, Stefan and Schmier have unleashed a different sort of animal. The album contains 10 tracks of in your face heavy metal delivered by a band at the top of their game and not playing it safe. Point proven by album opener ‘Death Knell’. It begins and ends with Schmier’s vocal of “Send Them All To Hell” and is a double bass drum driven roaring number. The first of Herman’s searing solos arrive after only a minute and he continues to do so over a dirty, rolling main riff backed by Schmier’s trademark snearing vocal. By contrast, next track ‘Hail And Kill’ thunders along on a huge, headbanging riff making it a spine tingling call to arms anthem.

Other highlights are the fast, foot to the floor drum patterns from Stefan that propel ‘Temple Of Doom’ that back the melodic but heavy guitar fills over the full throttle riffs. The band’s theme song, pardon the obvious pun, rolls along as the chorus says “Like a panzer”, another slower, heavy track with doomy, crunching riffing. A maniacal vocal from Schmier befits the title of ‘Freakshow’ with galloping rhythms bringing the album up to speed again. At just over six minutes long, ‘Why’ is the longest track, a slow, pounding beast of a song with a blazing guitar solo that kicks it into a proto thrash mid section before it rumbles to a close.

‘Virtual Collision’ features Exodus style stabbing riffs that build and build over the escalating drumming patterns. The album ends strongly with ‘Bleed For Your Sins’, the heaviest track both musically and lyrically with Schmier pushing his voice over the edge.

Send Them All To Hell is a very promising debut to say the least and I hope will be followed by a 2015 tour.

Panzer band line up :-

Schmier – Lead vocals/bass guitar.

Herman Frank – Guitars.

Stefan Schwarzmann – Drums.

Album track listing :-

Death Knell.

Hail And Kill.

Temple Of Doom.

Panzer.

Freakshow.

Mr.Nobrain.

Why.

Virtual Collision.

Roll The Dice.

Bleed For Your Sins.