‘Final Virus’ begins, grinding and grisly, that punishing, brutal lurch forward of conflict that all humans have endured since Cain walloped his brother, Abel, with a rock. All the marks are ticked when it comes to influences, and we’ll shoot out a few of them here – BOLT THROWER, HERESIARCH, albeit not as unhinged overall, MALEVOLENT CREATION – but this isn’t some slinging against the wall in hopes a shred of legitimacy sticks. The stringed soldiers keep their tone so blasted low for the most part it’s hard to tell which is which outside of the solos, but it fits the five-piece, as evidenced in the coda which leads us into ‘Chimera Soldiers’.
[Jesse] Sane’s vocals harangue, not so much barking orders as rumbling them from down the barrel of a Tiger II tank, and the instruments follow, nearly 68 tons of rolling, impending death. ‘Chimera Soldiers’ also stands apart in Death Age as the first song where KOMMAND moves above a mid-pace on its second, and ‘Global Death’ does fail to hold the attention for a bit, but all is resolved and raging once more by its twisting, churning end. ‘Polar Holdout’ finds the Shriver/Bosson rhythm section hanging on for dear life but holding down the backline as the other Shriver and Logan send screaming missiles and dive-bombs across and from the sky over the confrontation.
And I think that’s what it’s about at the end – confrontation. Make all the military references you want, but by the time ‘Fleeing Western Territories’ charges full-bore into ‘Collapse Metropolis’, we’re fatigued, pure and simple. Because that’s what KOMMAND’s about with Death Age. Simple, uncluttered aggression, the survivors faring likely not much better than the fallen.
Review By: Lord Randall
KOMMAND
Death Age
20 Buck Spin