Minenwerfer (USA) – Kriegserklärung LP

Black Metal

Since their formation in 2007, MINENWERFER have pursued a proud ‘n’ pure vision of black metal idiosyncratically focused on World War I – idiosyncratic, in the sense that the band hail from America but mostly sing in German. What has resulted is a startlingly accomplished canon that has quietly built itself into prolific proportions, with their first album arriving in 2010, followed by albums in 2012 and 2019, and a slew of split releases and EPs in the interim.

Of those many short-length releases, Kriegserklärung can conveniently be seen as a companion to an album release – in this case, 2012’s thick-yet-throttling Nihilistischen. And yet, where that album saw MINENWERFER inching closer to a palatable professionalism, the 24-minute Kriegserklärung fully bursts through those doors with a startling clarity, setting the stage for the band’s grand 2019 full-length, Alpenpäesse.