Following up on 2020s excellent second album, Eisenzeit, Germany’s war-mongering death metal cohorts Scalpture (I’m still not sure what a Scalpture is…) return with album number 3, and boy is it a scorcher.
Continuing the band’s war-obsessed themes and sound that’s part Hail of Bullets, part Asphyx (especially in the vocal department), and part Bolt Thrower, and like 1914, Scalpture are once again tackling WWI for Feldwärts (fieldwards!). And in doing so, have delivered one of the best death metal albums of 2022, though it’s unfortunately likely to be vastly overlooked in 2022s gamut of metal releases.
For its 9 song, 39 minute run time, Feldwärts delivers absolutely top-notch death metal from start to finish, and in those 39 minutes manages to do everything perfectly from paint peeling blast beat, thunderous, trundling grooves, and even a few moments of somber atmosphere and poignance, fitting the subject matter.
Every song on Feldwärts rips. Every…. fucking….song. There isn’t a weak note or song from the opening and closing bookends, the furious”To End All Wars” to “The Road Back”, with its appropriately somber closing minutes. In between, you get the VERY cool if all too short choral break in ” Ils n’ont pas passé”, some acoustic refrains and a stern march in “Challenging the Empire”, Bolt Thrower ish rumble of “Thunder in the East”, steady somber, mid-paced stomp of “Grabengott”, blistering “Landships” and the massive, moody mid-paced groove of “Through Hell and On”, the album’s arguable standout. All of it is rendered with a razor-sharp, clear, and searing production.
Feldwärts is arguably my favorite FDA records release since Entrails‘ Tales From the Morgue way back in 2010, it’s that good. I hope the band and this release gets more traction as the year goes on as it’s easily one of 2022s best death metal records.
