{"id":104858,"date":"2025-03-19T00:00:56","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T00:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=104858"},"modified":"2025-05-09T13:31:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T12:31:43","slug":"album-review-awaken-the-night-total-kommando","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-awaken-the-night-total-kommando\/","title":{"rendered":"AWAKEN THE NIGHT – Total Kommando (2025) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

AWAKEN THE NIGHT
Total Kommando<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nMetal Coffin (2025)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The artwork for this album is surely a contender for the cheesiest of the year, but don\u2019t judge a record by its cover. Total Kommando<\/em> may look like some lame mid-80s throwback but musically it\u2019s quite the assault. Like some fiery hot pot of Kreator, Midnight, Toxic Holocaust et al, Total Kommando<\/em> is a hellish speed metal attack from a bunch of crazed Italians who came together in 2022.<\/p>\n

This is Awaken The Night\u2019s debut full-length outing and one which leaves its mark due to its vicious nature as \u2018Emerald Fog\u2019 hits like some subterranean South American demon chewing at your throat. The vocals have that raw satanic style, choking on their own lung rust to the volatile soundtracks of scuttling percussion and rabid axe work.<\/p>\n

This is blackened thrash born from the Speed Kills<\/em> era metal compilation albums as Possessed, Slayer<\/a>, Bathory, Venom etc. join the fray for an orgy in virgin blood. \u2018Attila\u2019 is rapid, scorching the ears with its billowing plumes of filth. All of this must surely be fuelled by warm beer and snorted soot, especially the reckless fury of \u2018Terrorchain\u2019 and the dismal chimes of \u2018At The Stake\u2019, even if the opening chords remind of Skid Row\u2019s \u201818 And Life\u2019!<\/p>\n

Awaken The Night obviously spend too much time in the darkness of their bedrooms, but the end result is one that charms even with the formulaic strikes of \u2018Speed Metal Attack\u2019 and the title cut. There\u2019s also something slightly unorthodox about the album too which has kept me captivated through several listens.<\/p>\n

I really enjoyed the straight up mosh of \u2018Little Pier The Mechanix\u2019 and the catchy closer and namesake song \u2018Awaken The Night\u2019, but both also provide a different angle to the smouldering steel framework constructed by vocalist Earthquake, guitarist RRomanazzi, bassist Haborym and drummer Creator. Italian heavy metal continues to char the skin and blacken the bones.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AWAKEN THE NIGHTTotal Kommando Metal Coffin (2025)Rating: 7\/10 The artwork for this album is surely a contender for the cheesiest of the year, but don\u2019t judge a record by its cover. Total Kommando may look like some lame mid-80s throwback but musically it\u2019s quite the assault. Like some fiery hot pot of Kreator, Midnight, Toxic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5911],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-awaken-the-night"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104858"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104861,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104858\/revisions\/104861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}