Jehovah-Jireh: The Divine Anti-logos

There are times that the first contact with a band doesn’t happen musically but optically, something that can create emotions, positive or negative, before you even listen to the band’s work. So when Panzerfaust from Canada contacted me and asked me to listen to their new album, the first thing I did was to search them on the internet. Their photos from lives created the first positive impressions. The music of Panzerfaust doesn’t follow the traditional Black Metal sound of Canada but it is a combination of Scandinavian Black Metal with strong references to “Orthodox” sub-genre.

“Jehovah-Jireh: The Divine Anti-logos” was released in February of 2013 and it contains nine tracks of overall duration of fifty five minutes. The riffs that the listener will come across, are divided into the clearly Norwegian, fast, tremolo riffs, the atmospheric, heavy that brought to my mind old Samael and finally a mixture of disharmonic, “ugly” riffs which put out the DSBM influences of the band with the characteristic, massive, atmospheric riffs of “Orthodox” Black Metal. Generally the riffs are not distinguished for their originality but they are quite interesting and can drag the listener into their atmosphere and to transfer emotions easily. The structure of the tracks is quite good, although the tracks are big, they flow quite fast. There are one – two parts in the album that they are tedious but they don’t reduce the overall quality.

Concerning, now, the performance of the instruments, the word that must be used is: “flawless”. The guitars, which play the first role into the compositions, have a slight distortion concerning their sound, whereas they have accuracy in their playing style, they put out feeling and passion. The bass is lower so that you have to pay much attention in order to understand its lines which are interesting, but it fills the sound very well. The drums have quite weird lines, technical, with many changes in the way of playing and that draws the attention of the listener, while the drummer delivers with certainty and accuracy each beat. The vocals are other times harsh other times heavier Black Metal vocals with quite good expression but nothing special. The band has done a very good job also for the production and the mixture of the album achieving a heavy and bass sound, very solid but at the same time very balanced.

The listener will have to read also the lyrics during the listen in order to have a complete experience. The lyrics are written in English and the approach subjects of religion in a philosophical way. In general the album both concerning the music and the lyrics is quite personal and esoteric, something that demands the full attention of the listener so as to create the emotions, the thoughts and images which has to offer. Personally, I like the album a lot and I think that it worth the listen. However, because it is not appropriate for every taste, listen to it before you buy.