Infiltrator – Remnants Of Battle (Review)

Once upon a time there was a band from the UK that cemented themselves as one of the most influential and legendary acts to ever grace the realms of death metal, elevating the genre with numerous quality releases that are still heralded as the genre’s pinnacle statements. While active between 1986 and 2016, their legacy and spirit still lives on in many houshold names of the everevolving genre such as Frozen Soul, Xibalba or Extermination Order. That band is Bolt Thrower. Full Stop.

Now what has that to do with the newest release of fairly new and yet fairly unknown German act Infiltrator and its debut Remnants Of Battle? Reading the band name and the records title, you might have guessed it. With Remnants Of Battle all you Bolt Thrower afficinados are in for a treat as the one man project, initiated by the mysterious L.P. offers just what you’ve all been missing after the band’s demise in 2016. This is pure and unfiltered Bolt Thrower worship that honours the legendary act’s trademark sound almost to a t. From the beginning of “An Endless March” you are thrown straight onto the battle field of rolling tanks that penetrate you with bone-crushing drums, catchy melodic tremolo riffs and head-bobbing grooves that are so reminiscent to the OGs you might wonder if this might be a new record by the style’s originators themselves. That is also aided by the fact that L.P. sounds almost exactly like the one and only war dog Karl Willets himself. The records prodcution is also pretty clean and guitar heavy which make the songs as the crushing “Fire And Steel” or the fairly infectious “Forgotten Virtue” easy standouts. The guitar work also offers some great variation with interesting solos such as in “Merciless Advance” or stupidly fun groove patterns, that are aided by the fairly dynamic drumming which serves as a great plus since the tempos are switched cleverly throughout the records runtime of roughly 40 minutes. Sure, this is a highly unoriginal record but its execution is so damn good that you cannot help but banging your head to the fist-raising Resewn or the scorching closer and title track.

All in all, Remnants of Battle serves as a great reminder why Bolt Thrower were one of the best death metal bands to ever do it as its execution and procution are perfectly suitable for your next ride into battle. Sometimes fun and execution are striking harder than originality. And that is truly the case with Infiltrator’s striking debut.

Guest Review

Death Metal steamroller from Leipzig.

Infiltrator are from Leipzig, play Death Metal and do that pretty well. Right off the first track, a real inferno rains down on the listener. Both the vocals as well as the entire music are strongly reminiscent of the sound of Bolt Thrower, yet there still is a decent amount of charm to not be considered a cheap copy. In general, they do not reinvent the Death Metal wheel, but this album still is so much fun since Bolt Thrower and the likes are not just simply copied but pays fond tribue to the old bands.

This album absolutely crushes everything and relentlessly splits heads.

The tape variant was released via Heavenly Vault and the LP came via Fucking Kill Records.

[Jonas // Noise from the Ghoul Cave]