Pänzer ‎"Fatal Command" CD (Bonustrack)

After the successful debut "Send Them All to Hell" (2014) the German Pänzer strikes back with their second long play, the capably titled and graphically designed "Fatal Command". Compared to their debut the new album sounds even more canorous to me or maybe the right term would be hymnal, filled with beauteous twin guitar harmonies and chants that are simply soul shaking ("We Can Not Be Silenced" and "I'll Bring You The Night" would be good examples for that).
The album also includes a huge portion of fascinating solos, played with 100% competent spirit and vibe. The whole album radiates some kind of feel that is about "how good were those 80s, so let's pay a tribute and create something of our own with a totally sincere heart and respect to those golden times of the past".
Sure, one can hear or find similarities to such genre-defining bands as Judas Priest, Iron Maiden or Accept, but Pänzer's aim is to have fun playing the classic heavy metal style the way they envision it! OK, we have plenty of specific elements coming directly from thrash metal and speed metal, but those ingredients are simply inevitable in our case due to the musicianship, which has been expanded I suppose in sake of getting more massive 6-string expressions both live and in the studio.
The all-star line-up of "Fatal Command" incorporates the following experienced and tested with time musicians: Schmier (from Destruction and Headhunter) – vocals & bass, V.O. (from Gurd, Poltergeist and Pulver) – guitars & backing vocals, Pontus (from Hammerfall) – lead guitars & backing vocals, Stefan (ex-Accept, ex-Running Wild, ex-U.D.O. and dozens of other bands) – drums, percussion & backing vocals.
During the 12 songs and almost an hour of playing time we can confront a really great variety of musical solutions, which mostly will guide us back to the good old 80s, still with the freshness of the 21st century! The equation for the musical essence of Pänzer looks pretty simple and it can be described this way: diehard music done by diehard musicians for diehard fans.
"Fatal Command" as its predecessor was recorded at Little Creek Studio and has been mixed & mastered by V.O. himself, needless to say the overall result became remarkably massive and juicy! The lyrical content is on a kind of rather personal level I would say and it deals exclusively with social themes and issues that have to do with all of us lately. Quite educational reading to be honest! So while listening to the album I would just recommend you to pay attention to these lyrics too.
As a bonus track we have an apposite cover version of Saxon's classic "Wheels of Steel" out of their 2nd album. Brilliant remake! The digipak CD has a flawless design and comes with a cool poster featuring the awesome politically-motivated cover art of Gyula Havancsák on one side, while on the other side we have the band painted and presented live in action. All is left to say, order this heavy metal gem right now or get afflicted by the curse of the Pänzer!

Sample: 

Official promo video: