Panzer AG

Category: Industrial
Album: This Is My Battlefield

Panzer AG is yet another side-project from the prodigious mind of Andy LaPlegua. Not satisfied with just Icon Of Coil or Combichrist, Panzer AG is LaPlegua’s newest project, delivering the tones of :wumpscut: or Suicide Commando combined with the distorted, thin drums of powernoise.

While the music can often be interesting, the lyricism and vocals stand out like a proverbial sore thumb. They sit on top of the mix, the tone not quite matching the songs themselves. Meanwhile, the lyrics tear at the listener’s attention. Many of the songs sound as if LaPlegua is drawing much of his inspiration from Marilyn Manson’s Holy Wood, while others veer away from grammar into the land of “English As A Second Language” classes. Lyrics like “I am the ingredience/I am the ingredience/I am above all life/I am life it self” in “Chemical Breed” tear at one’s attention and pull you away from listening to music, though that song is one of the worst examples.

The tracks are very hit-and-miss in how well they manage to function. While some of the earlier tracks like “Filth God” and “Battlefield” sound a bit silly, though decent, “Chemical Breed” and many of the later instrumental tracks either don’t sound quite right, are too uniformly uninteresting, or come off as very awkward and unfinished.

“When Death Embraces Me” stands out as one of the tracks where the balance is much more interesting. There is less of the powernoise influence and more of a throwback to the dancability of Icon Of Coil, though in a very :wumpscut:-like manner. “God Eats God” also seems to drink deep from the cup of :wumpscut: in the tone and construction of its slow marching theology-meets-militarism.

“Behind A Gasmask” does manage to throw in a few good touches in the usage of Steril-like combination of harsh electronics with metal guitar and, as such, pulls away from the rest of the album’s tone with something totally different and interesting to hear.

The album manages to mix tracks like “Bereit” and “Totale Luftherrschaft,” pure powernoise with more interesting industrial structures, with the cold piano & strings ballad of “Sick Is The One Who Adores Me” and the cold electro of Panzer AG’s collaboration with Symbiont on “Tides That Kill”. And the mix is satisfactory. This isn’t the band that will impress you and become a new classic or a favorite for all time, but there is something here to be enjoyed amidst the disparity of influences.

The willingness to experiment and crossbreed powernoise, metal, electro, synthpop, EBM and industrial manages to deliver some interesting experiments, though no real surprises.

 

from ReGen Magazine (~11/2004)