Passiondale is what the English called the Belgium village Passchendaele in the First World War. Over 900.000 soldiers died in that area during the war. The lyrics on this album are based on that drama. Titles such as "Poison Fog" (about mustard gas), "Drowning in Mud" and "No Survivors" speak for itself.

The fast blastbeating track "The Cross of Sacrifice" starts after a spoken intro of a Japanese woman. Immediately you can hear the big difference from their last album 'The Toxic Touch'. The new songs are much more aggressive, less melodic and less accessible than on that record. In my opinion they go back to their earlier albums 'Bloody Blasphemy' and 'Lair of the White Worm'.  Perhaps it has something to do with the return of ex- drummer Roel Sanders. Besides another drummer, Henri Sattler also had to look for a new guitarist; Susan Gerl fills in Isaac Delahaye's place.

"No Man's Land" is a song with thrashy rhythms and blastbeats, in the song "Poison Fog" the clean vocals are done by Marco van de Velde (The Wounded) - the song has a very dramatic melody and that gives it just the right feeling. Henri Sattler's aggressive grunts and screams give the right touch to the songs. Most of the songs are very fast and heavy, but fortunately God Dethroned knows how to push the brakes on too, and this makes 'Passiondale' a very balanced record with all ingredients a death metal fan needs.

If all those modern (death)-metalcore bands makes you wanna puke, check this out, this is the real thing.