Minenwerfer is a black metal duo from Sacramento, California. They formed in 2007 and disbanded in 2014, but in 2016 they started back up again.
They stopped playing live in 2017. Minenwerfer is German for “Minethrower”, i.e. a mortar. The band focuses on world war one, philosophy and history.
I’ve chosen to review their third full length album Alpenpasse, this album was released in 2019, released on the label Purity through fire. The band has no ties to any far right beliefs, and they have gone on record to say that they don’t condone any discrimination.
The lineup for this album is the sole two members, Bret Tardiff on lead vocals and Nick Liuzzi on guitars, drums, additional vocals, and synthesizers. The tracklist for this album only contains six songs and has a total running time of 59 minutes and 9 seconds.
Tracklist:
1. Der Blutharsch 17:08
- Dragging the Dead Through Mountain Passes 7:09
- Cloaked in Silence 12:53
- Kaiserjagerlied 9:19
- Tiroler Edelweiss 4:33
- Withered Tombs 8:07
The cover art is based off of a world war one era photograph taken by an unknown photographer from the German empire’s 10th army in 1916, it features an Austrian sniper on the slope of the Gisnitz, a peak in the Karnische Alpen range.
Overall I think this album is a 10/10. It has good intense songs with fast drumming and shrill vocals, but on the other hand it has a nice calm acoustic song.
