PANZERBALLETT

After this sensational description by the band itself I feel there is not much to say! I believe this is really a metal band, however there is a part of them that really enjoys jazz/fusion. Saying that, in this first album, PANZERBALLETT are exploring more the pathways of jazz/funk/fusion rather than metal. Although there are plenty of moments that resemble to extreme progressive metal, I feel the saxophone solos are overtaking this situation...

Combining Meshuggah-like rhythms with pure jazz is not the easiest thing in prog or music in general but these guys quite succeed. Although the guitar and the saxophone are the instruments that dominate the sound, the - often funky - bass is really outstanding and provides the ideal background for the others to improvise. Iron Maiden Voyage (no relation to Iron Maiden whatsoever) is the highlight track where this previous sentence definitely applies.

The album consists of 8 ''proper'' compositions (plus a short 'fun' track), filled with lots of guitar and sax improvisation and continuous rhythm changes, while the main themes are repeated after many minutes within the same track to provide some sense of structure. Another element that struck me is the enormous speed of some compositions - something that makes them almost impossible to follow and to comprehend.

It is hard to deliver a track-to-track review for this extraordinary (in many aspects) album. There are quite a lot of brilliant moments here and surely both fans of jazz/fusion and technical metal will find interesting elements. At the same time, I feel this debut is a bit more eclectic than normal due to lots of improvisation and unexpected changes, so 3.5 stars is the fairest option...

Have you ever heard a PANZER DANCING? Well, if not, this is your chance!

PS. Many, many thanks to Dr. Heath for making this band known to me.

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