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.