75%

Polish BRANDKOMMANDO debuts with a limited release entitled "Achtung,
Achtung der Kommunismus Kommt". The CD is published by Beast of Prey in a very
professional manner. I always loved the art of totalitarianism, especially
the Socialist Realism paintings, that's why I liked the front cover immediately.
It is depicting a worker standing in front of a banner with a hammer, sickle and a
pen (the working intellectual's tool of the trade). The inside is even
more interesting, a cardbox layout with communist graphics, an aluminium bag
for the CD. Everything very austere, harsh, just like those times, just like a
Soviet product. Great idea!

The music itself is being called "anti-music" in some circles. BRANDKOMMANDO's music can be described as a harsh noise, so to all of you DJ's out there, forget about playing it during one of your parties, unless you want to rapidly finish it, with a mass exodus of the crowd, and total destruction of all glass objects in the room ( yes, including windows ). The first track "PPR", begins quite innocently, with silent, distorted humming, combined with very erotic moans of a woman... then, all hell breaks loose.... or that's not hell at all, let us remember we have a communist concept-album here. While listening to BRANDKOMMANDO, we feel like a steel factory worker, pushing his limits to achieve an efficiency record, unheard
of before. With the constant white noise of the machines, rumbling of the
hammers, and propaganda speeches behind our back we are really there - in
the 50's, in a factory in the iron grip of a communist regime. Those
impressions come to mind.... In a few of the tracks we can listen to various
samples, be it the Radio Moscow speech, broadcast just after Stalin's death, or a
poem, written by Adam Wazyk, dedicated to the very Sun of Nations.

This coherent, and very rhythmic and well thought-out material can be
compared for example, to earlier works of FOLKSTORM perhaps, but BRANDKOMMANDO is a little bit less agresive, and darker. The only flaw I can see in this release is that this music is really nothing new - just good harsh noise,
and that's about it. Sure the concept album thing is great, and the music is well played, but I didn't hear any groundbreaking tracks. All in all, this is definitely a good debut, worthy of a 70%, and an additional 5% for the great layout. I will be watching this project's development in future releases for sure. The beginnings are really interesting!

1. PPR
2. Banda Bieruta
3. O Co Walczymy?
4. 3 x Tak
5. Stalin, Antyhymn
6. Stalin, wg Piotra A. Wazyka

• Brandkommando - Time of Violence - 2008-03-11 (Music reviews)
• Brandkommando - Nasz Ukochany Kraj - 2007-01-01 (Music reviews)

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