Miss Pavlichenko’s well known to fame
Ukraine’s your country, fighting is your game
Your smile shines as bright as the new morning Sun
For more than 300 Nazi dogs fell by your gun
Lyudmyla Pavlichenko was a Ukrainian Soviet sniper during World War II, credited with 309 confirmed kills, making her one of the deadliest snipers in history. Revered for her precision and composure, she became a symbol of Soviet resistance against Nazi Germany. In 1942, during her U.S. goodwill tour, American folk singer Woody Guthrie met Pavlichenko and was moved to write Miss Pavlichenko, a stark, powerful ballad honoring her courage and wartime prowess. Guthrie’s tribute framed her not only as a military heroine, but as a figure of international solidarity against fascism.
Fast forward eighty-some years and we’ve got Tantrum Zentrum, a London outfit as unruly as its name suggests, tackling the same issues with Vaat Dafuq on vocals and drums, Sabine de Rousseau on guitar, Endzeit handling both guitar and vocal duties, and Val Schimmer anchoring the bass. Their influences are crystal clear: German experimentalism of the early 1970s meets the nervy agitation of late-70s New York no wave. The result is disorder with direction: bristling noise balanced against unexpected melody.
Tantrum Zentrum’s latest strike, Lady Death, discards nostalgia like yesterday’s paper after feasting at a chip shop. It takes Woody Guthrie’s wartime ballad and arms it with amplifiers, urgency, and disdain for fascism’s return in tailored suits. Sparked by a post-show conversation in Oldenburg, this version is no tribute…it is an alarm. Acoustic lullabies are abandoned for jagged guitars and militant momentum. In a world where history is edited and tyranny rebranded, Tantrum Zentrum choose to shout. And they are right to do so.
With guitars serrated like broken bayonets, rhythms that rumble like distant artillery, and vocals that spit rather than sing, Lady Death barrels forward with a clenched jaw and wild-eyed conviction. Echoes of Killing Joke’s dread-drenched march, Sonic Youth’s scorched dissonance, Fad Gadget’s history lessons, and Let3’s Balkan bombast bleed through the mix. Pavlichenko’s precision becomes metaphor, her myth sharpened into anthem. This isn’t nostalgia: it’s nerve, noise…and necessary. A track for those who stand their ground, and won’t be pushed back.
“This isn’t just a history lesson – it’s a warning and a call to arms,” says the band. “With Ukraine under siege and fascism creeping across the West, we need to celebrate those who fought before us and continue that fight today.”
Recorded live at The Fortress in Melksham, UK, on January 17, 2024, Lady Death captures the band’s raw energy, and produced by heavyweights Steve Evans (Siouxsie Sioux, Robert Plant) and Reza Udin (Killing Joke, Inertia).
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