Firstly, can we all wait a minute and admire that kickass logo? I love it! I quite like the album cover too. I don’t want to dwell on the New Wave Of Old School Thrash Metal situation, whatever the current status of that is, I’m fine with it. KOBOLD is a Serbian based Thrash Metal band that just does not rest! Firstly, I like the opener and just look at that title ‘Hatred Speedfuck’? Hahaha. Anyway, the band is firing on all cylinders here, the guitars sound good, and some of the vocals take me to early Mille Petrozza’s output. The whole sound of the band is enveloped with a ton of things happening at the same time and the members still manage to stand on their own. The production is fantastic, the quick fretwork is amply audible at every single second. The heavy guitars carry the album throughout. The drumming is well done and the bassist shines regularly. I have to give it to their relentless approach, the band puts their best foot forward on every single song and although they don’t rewrite the rules of the game, they make it sound incredibly easy to the listener. I am completely confident these guys will kill it in a live setting. Track # 3 is a definite highlight for me, ‘Empire – It Is Us’ starts off with an incredibly engaging 2 minutes of pummelling Thrash Metal, add to it a beautiful sense of melody that KOBOLD add to their delivery mechanism and it works beautifully. I like these guys, this is the first album of KOBOLD I’m listening to and I know some of the traditional Thrash fans might be on the fence, but I sincerely hope every single fan out there checks this out. It’s an engaging, quick and well written album worthy of your time! Just leave the standard Thrash boundaries at the door and you’ll do just fine! For more information, please visit: www.facebook.com/koboldserbia, www.facebook.com/ibdc666