UMUR "Spirit of Time" is the second full-length studio album by German thrash/progressive metal act Battlefield. The album was released through Rising Sun Productions in 1993. It´s the successor to "Still and Ever Again" from 1991.

The predecessor featured a progressive heavy metal style with the occasional nod towards the band´s thrash metal roots. "Spirit of Time" sheds the thrash metal elements completely and the sound of the album is best described as progressive heavy metal with quite a few experimental songwriting ideas. Compared to the relatively complex and often lengthy tracks featured on the predecessor, Battlefield show more restraint here, and the tracks are therefore predominantly shorter and more vers/chorus oriented. While that is not always a plus, I´ll go out on a limb here and say, that it´s a much better songwriting approach for Battlefield, who finally sound like they´ve found a musical direction and follow it. That hasn´t always been the case on preceding releases by the band.

"Spirit of Time" is a very well produced release, featuring a heavy, detailed, and dynamic sounding production job, which greatly enhances the listening experience. The musical performances are on a high level. The guitar work is intricate and powerful, the rhythm section play both heavy and sophisticated rhythms, while lead vocalist Tanja Ivenz is the icing on the cake. Her voice and vocal style work much better on this album than they did on "Still and Ever Again" (1991), where I think they occasionally sounded a little grating on the ears. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Still and Ever Again" is the debut full-length studio album by German thrash/progressive metal act Battlefield. The album was released in 1991 through Rising Sun Productions. Battlefield formed in 1987 and released their debut EP "We Come to Fight" in 1987. They released two demos in 1990. There was a lead vocalist change between the release of the two demos as original lead vocalist Cornelia Ernst was replaced by Tanja Ivenz, who continued to sing with Battlefield until they split-up sometime in the 1990s.

Battlefield started out playing an intense and aggressive thrash metal style on "We Come to Fight" (1987), but developed a more experimental and technical thrash metal style on the two 1990 demos. Listening to "Still and Ever Again" it´s safe to say that the band haven´t stopped their musical development, as the material on this debut album may be recognisable as the sound of Battlefield, but still sounds vastly different from what came before. I´d call it a progressive heavy metal style with elements from hard rock and thrash metal. It´s actually very hard to label correctly, because it´s a very eclectic sounding release, featuring many different experimental songwriting ideas and playing styles. It´s definitely progressive metal in some form though. Ivenz sings clean vocals throughout the album alternating between shouting cleans and more melodic clean vocals, even touching jazzy territories once or twice.

"Still and Ever Again" features a relatively well sounding production job, although the vocals are a bit too up front in the mix and often features too much reverb. Upon conclusion it´s an interesting release and definitely worth listening to if you´re interested in unconventional heavy/thrash metal with many progressive/experimental ideas. It´s however not always the most well constructed or accessible/memorable release, and that´s definitely where it´s lacking a bit. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

UMUR "Rehearsal Tape" is a demo release by German thrash metal act Battlefield. The demo was independently released in 1990. After releasing their debut EP "We Come to Fight" in 1987, Battlefield weren´t able to capitalize on that release and find a label to release a debut album, so in 1990 they took the consequence and started working and recording demo material again. This reheasal demo is the second out of two 1990 demos that the band recorded and released, before they were finally signed for the release of their debut full-length studio album "Still and Ever Again" (1991).

Although the basis of the music is still intense and powerful thrash metal, Battlefield have opted for a more experimental, technical, eclectic, and occasionally more melodic take on thrash metal on the three tracks on the demo. Lead vocalist Tanja Ivenz sings a lot more clean vocals than the raw staccato styled thrash metal vocals of her predecessor Cornelia Ernst (a lead vocalist lineup change occured between the two 1990 demos). The tracks are relatively complex and dynamic with many acoustic breaks and changes in pace and rhythms. The musicianship is obviously on a very high level, and I´m especially impressed by the many explosive leads.

This may be titled "Rehearsal Tape", and while this is undoubtedly a demo quality sound production, it still sounds pretty good to my ears. It´s not one of those rehearsal tapes which sounds like they are recorded on a cheap tape recorder in the middle of a garage style rehearsal space, with all instruments and vocals competing for attention and often blurring each other out. No...you can actually hear all details of the music when listening to this demo.

While I applaud experiments and the eclectic nature of Battlefield´s efforts on this release, it does end up sounding directionless and maybe a bit too experimental for its own good. A 3 star (60%) rating is still warranted though.

UMUR "Time to Rethink" is a demo cassette tape release by German thrash metal act Battlefield. The demo was independently released in 1990. It´s the band´s first out of two demo tapes released in 1990. Battlefield formed in 1987 and released the "We Come to Fight" EP that same year, but they had to return to releasing demos as they weren´t able to secure a label deal. The two 1990 demos lead to the band being signed to Rising Sun Productions for the release of their debut full-length studio album "Still and Ever Again" (1991). Not before a lead vocalist change had occured though, as "Time to Rethink" would be the last Battlefield release to feature Cornelia Ernst before she was replaced by Tanja Ivenz.

"Time to Rethink" is an incredible intense, fast-paced, and energetic technical thrash metal release, which shows great development of Battlefield´s sound since the release of "We Come to Fight" (1987). Ernst sings more clean vocals than she did on the 1987 EP, but she can still deliver rough staccato styled thrash metal vocals when it is called for. The music has become quite technical and relatively complex and eclectic. It´s definitely not straight forward thrash metal anymore. One of the main attracations is still the intense thrash metal riffs though, but this time around there are just a lot more experimental ideas thrown in, acoustic breaks, and more clean vocal parts.

Considering that "Time to Rethink" is a demo recording, the sound production is decent and you´re able to hear all details of the music. Upon conclusion "Time to Rethink" is a relatively bold display of new songwriting ideas and playing skills from Battlefield, but personally I think I prefer the slightly more straight forward thrash metal style of the "We Come to Fight" (1987) EP. The experiments aren´t always incorporated in the most sophisticated manner and they have a tendency to disrupt the flow of the songs. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

UMUR "We Come to Fight" is an EP release by German thrash metal act Battlefield. The EP was released in 1987 through T.R.C. Records. "We Come to Fight" is the band´s debut release. While it wasn´t completely unheard of in 1987, it was still relatively unusual for a thrash metal act to feature a female lead vocalist (Holy Moses is another contemporary example of it), but that´s exactly what Battlefield have in their ranks.

Stylistically the music is powerful, fast-paced, and occasionally melodic thrash metal. Cornelia Ernst hits the balance between raw sounding thrash metal vocals and slightly more melodic moments right. It never becomes too mainstream, but there´s still a female touch to the procedings that you wouldn´t have gotten with a man behind the microphone. She is predominantly pretty raw sounding though. Battlefield are a well playing band (again they hit the balance right between unhinged rawness and more sophisticated moments) and the EP also features a well sounding production job, which is perfect for the material, so upon conclusion it´s actually a pretty impressive first release by Battlefield and they can be proud of this one. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is fully deserved.