Panzerkampf - Extermination Engineering
Sort of a side-project to the more well-known industrial/dark-ambient act called Paranoia Inducta. The debut of this project was released on CD back in 2025, on a Polish label called Heerwegen Tod Productions. Comes as a 6-paneled digipack, and as a normal jewel case. 45 minutes in total, with 9 tracks.
The cover-artwork is a darkened photo showing a building, probably a bombed ruin, while still standing. You open the digpack and see 2 panels with large electricity pylons, and the last 2 panels contain information and a track listing. The album is called Extermination Engineering. Apparently, this album contains 2 members and not just one. First, we have Anthony Armageddon Destroyer (charming), who takes care of the noise, and then we have L-Melkor, who delivers the vocals. Let's dive into it and understand what it is.
The first track is called Deadlands. The sound of something gliding (in a quiet way) through a cold and grey sky... could be a drone. Distant and deep cello-like drones, giving the impression of something deadly getting closer. Ghostly sounds fade in and out, with a subtle, distorted presence of sound in there aswell. Definitely spooky, without knowing the danger of it. Nice intro!
The second track On The Edge of the Soul. Cold wind is escaping through the ventilation systems, crystal-line ambient tones, subtle ritualistic drumming, and vocals! Vocals sound like an orc-cyborg, or a cyborg being a former black metal vocalist. I actually do like the vocals, has that charming "evil" sound to it. The moody dark-ambient sound-textures work very well here.
The third track is Mind Surgery. Distant trumpet/horn drones, nicely layered actually. Some growling demons in there aswell (I think). Nice ritualistic martial rhythms, with the cyborg orc vocals aswell. Kind of like a thing between Melek-Tha and Desiderii Marginis.
The fourth track, The Eye Of Nothingness. Best rhythms sofar, kind of gets me back to TG´s classic industrial-banger track Discipline. A subtle screaming microphone, or is it a distorted guitar...not sure. The track has a good way of building up, especially with the intensity of both the mood and the rhythms.
We jump straight into track 5, Extermination Engineering. A static tone, sound of scrap metal, a noisy radiator, orc-cyborg vocals... kind of getting into a sort of Terminator meets black-metal-feel here. A slowly and nicely built atmospheric track.
The sixth track is then called Signs Of Death. Getting a bit more futuristic in the use of the electronics, and the vocal parts here, and working more in a spoken-word sort of way. Think I'm more with the spoken words than the cyborg orc, which has a more sincere evil feel to it. Nice death-industrial touches here.
The seventh track, Creature of Heaven. More of a melancholic track than an evil one. Closer again to stuff like Raison d´ëtre and Desiderii Marginis. Nice tribal rhythms in there aswell, and the vocals continuing the spoken-word direction. I think that (at this moment) the album is slowly getting more... personal and therefore more interesting!
I will leave the curiosity for the last two tracks for the intrigued listener. Extermination Engineering is (in a lot of ways) a good album. Bit evil in a comical way, but I think it works smoothly around that without actually being an issue. The overall sound quality is quite superb, without being too sterile and polished. I do think, though, that some samples or actual recordings could spice it up a bit... but apart from that It´s a good post-apocalyptic album.
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