Five tracks of ugly, violent, war-themed death metal from the other side of the world. While the influences are plain (Dismember, Morbid Angel, Bolt Thrower, Autopsy, whose ‘Twisted Mass of Burnt Decay’ they cover…) and there’s nothing to really set Prisoner Of War apart from their peers in either the sonic or songwriting stakes, the five songs here are delivered with so much aggression that you can’t help but take notice. Things roll inexorably forward like tank tracks over mounds of fragile, twitching flesh while vengeful howls of rage and pain erupt from the trenches, the music conjuring an appropriate sense of chaos, fear and turmoil given the barbaric wartime themes that the band seek to depict.
