Review by Sonny for Tankograd - Totalitarian (2019)

Named for the Soviet tank production facility at Chelyabinsk during WW2, this slab of Polish true doom is as heavy as any of the IS-2s that rolled off those Russian production lines. Four of it's five tracks lyrically mine the doom metal motherlode of WW2 itself, written from the points of view of nazi SS Officer and war criminal Joachim Peiper (Ostatni Sen Joachima), sailors in an arctic convoy being hunted by U-boats and stukas (Arkhangelsk), a german soldier being evacuated for leave from the front by plane (Lot do Kraju) and a U-boat crew facing unremitting boredom punctuated by spurts of sheer terror (Żelazne Trumny). Mir, the closing track, is a reflection on the effects of the collapse of the USSR on the millions of workers who depended on it for their living, musing on a symbol of that once mighty empire - the Mir space station.

The riffs are slow and heavy with slightly echoing vocals that lend the atmosphere a hopelessness that the doomed protagonists of the songs' lyrics face. There are more restrained passages, particularly during both Lot do Kraju and Mir where the desperation is replaced with a more melancholy resignation. Totalitarian is, however, mainly about crushing doom in the vein of a band like Monolord, although they particularly remind me of England's Witchsorrow, only with better songwriting. Any true doom-head should find this harder to resist than crack-infused Pringles!