Operation Gericht is a Trench Folk Metal album chronicling the 300-day Battle of Verdun—the longest and one of the most devastating battles of WWI.

In February 1916, German Chief of General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn launched Unternehmen Gericht (Operation Judgment). Unlike previous offensives aimed at capturing territory or breaking enemy lines, Falkenhayn’s stated goal was chillingly mathematical: to “bleed France white.” Knowing the French would defend the historic fortress city of Verdun to the last man, Falkenhayn planned to use an unprecedented concentration of heavy artillery to create a kill-zone, drawing the entire French army into a mechanical meat-grinder.

What followed was 300 days of apocalyptic industrial slaughter. Forests were instantly vaporized into lunar landscapes. Men drowned in mud, choked on poison gas, and died of thirst inside underground concrete forts. To survive, the French utilized the Noria system, rapidly rotating divisions in and out of the line via the “Sacred Way” until nearly 70% of the French Army had passed through the horrors of Verdun.