
The theme, fil-rouge, or storyline is an important pillar of any one great album. To choose the right one demands skill and careful attention. And it’s used as a vessel to drive a crisp narrative, to jolt the songwriting in the right direction, and to keep it snappy and brisk. And most of the time, this works out just beautifully.
But then, exceptions happen. And Bull Elephant‘s The Long War is one of them. To call their choice of storyline unfortunate is an understatement. BE here boast a fairytale full of Nazi paraphernalia, Himmler’s last stand at the SS stronghold of Castle Wewelsburg, anthems forged with the label of the atrocious Unit 7311 stamped into them, and so on and so forth. To replace “…Judeo-Christian mythology…”2 with “…the even more sinister universe hinted at in the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, Nazi assault wolves, a bionic orangutan and Vril-powered supersoldiers.” Oh boy.
First of all, numerous stories, even computer games, featuring Lovecraft-induced monsters fighting for or against some Nazi entity have seen the light of day over the last decades. And there’s nothing unusually atrocious about it, just the thrill of untold evil and occult undertones bound into war stories. But to prominently push abominations like Unit 731 into a storyline is beyond the pale. This crosses that thick red line from artistic freedom to the evil clown section. This unfortunate choice is akin to having the atrocious Nazi concentration camps with their selection of murderous Mengeles somehow in your tale as some sort of main actor. Only, if they did that, Bull Elephant would soon find itself in the razor-sharp sights of any number of Jewish watchdogs. And they’d probably steer clear of that kind of tough love.3
Not to put too fine a point on it, it’s sometimes better to just concentrate on the music and not lose yerself in confused musings about things nobody evidently really thought through or truly understands. In this light, let’s explore what kind of bullying The Long War has on offer. After all, we came here for the music, right?
The record boasts an all-out assault with all guns blazing. An enraged wild elephant stampede that roars straight through the tracklist, like. Thus, a motley selection of styles awaits the avid listener. Ranging from heavily stomping stoner delights, forays into prog and Heavy Metal, some astonishing doom excursions, to hardier styles. Right from the start, it’s the rhythm section with its ’70s-style stoner drumming that sits astonishingly high up in the mix. The shrill, ear-shattering wails and guttural growls of the vocalist(s) thus need to weave their way painfully through that spiderweb of blast beats and never-ending yet somewhat repetitive drum performance. The clear-voice vocalist often sounds like some crazed multi-dimensional version of Cirith Ungol‘s Tim Baker, by the way.
And the dynamically written songs may be the strongest suit of The Long War. Zentrum der neuen Welt, for instance, starts with sturdy war drumming worthy of any African tribe. It then effortlessly samples some Hitler-esque monologue, just to woozily move over into some ’70s hypnotic groove section. The track finishes with a flourish, though. Mid-tempo growly heavy metal takes over with – yet again – some injections of Baker-esque caustic wails.
It’s this incredible knack to effortlessly ride roughshod across styles and flavors and to connect the unconnectable with great skill that saved the day on TLW. And that creates a unique experience of artfully crafted Extreme Metal of the likes we have seldom seen to date.
So, finally, the verdict on The Long War is twofold. First, the cringeworthy choice of main actors in the storyline turns a promising fantasy story into a dud. Second, the musical part churned out a number of promising twists and turns with often otherworldly songwriting. But somehow, it also left the RMR crew frustrated with that feeling of unfinished business. You see, the record starts strongly enough. But as it progresses and despite the attempted variation, there’s a certain flatness, a lack of depth. And that’s a very important commodity for any good album out there in the wild. Furthermore, the RMR crew grew quite annoyed at that sense of repetition that manifests itself after a while. Not only with the stomping drum work but also the riffing and the howling and growling.
You’ll still find some outstanding moments on The Long War, The Fall of Berlin with its snazzy solo being one of them. And the band’s out-of-the-box performance on this record will undoubtedly get them a ton of new fans across the metal multiverse. But overall, this here record didn’t quite make the cut over at the RMR review desk.
And that’s truly unfortunate.
Record Rating: 5/10 | Label: Eat Lead and Die Music | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 17 November 2023