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Holy fucking shit, this maniacal piece of work has destroyed my house, defecated on my car, and torn me a new asshole! Nocturnal Breed play a very fast style of Thrash Metal with vocals that fall into the more "black" side of things - except Kenneth Svartalv is far better than most Black Metal vocalists; more on that later - and this is their fourth full length album, and it completely smokes. I had never even heard the band before they were recommended to me on an Internet forum, and I'm very glad I checked them out now.

The production is polished, yet still lethal and crunchy as fuck, not sounding overproduced or boring at all. The guitars here are thrashy and, most importantly, they're fast. There's no trendiness to be found here; no groove or nu metal, just a collection of hellishly headbangable thrashy Black Metal played at about twice the normal pace. The band doesn't let up here, either, spending 30 minutes doing nothing but kicking your ass in 10 different ways, and loving every deliciously juicy second of it. The riffs are sharp, concise and throat-ripping and the solos rip by you with an intensity hot enough to melt your face off. The tone might not sound like it was produced in a basement, but the riffs here will get your head to bang. If they don't, then I suggest you stop listening to metal altogether. The vocals are handled by one Kenneth Svartalv, or "Destroyer" as he calls himself, and while he may have a cliché pseudonym, he lets loose some of the best extreme screeches and yowls ever laid to disc. Seriously, fuck your frog croaking and your Cookie Monster gurgling, this guy is a lot of the reason that Fields of Rot is so damn cool. He literally sounds like he's got a mouthful of rusty nails, and while such a comparison might fall on deaf ears to those without a taste for this kind of thing, the band would not work so well without him behind the mic.

I'm completely impressed by this. There are no weak songs here. It doesn't try to be anything it isn't, it's short and to the point, not wasting your time with useless interludes and movie soundclips and whatever else shitty bands are loading their discs with these days; it just thrashes your face off. I hope the rest of the band's albums are this good, because this album is damned good, and probably one of the best of 2007. You want a standout track? Read the track list, and then get the fuck out of my face and go get this album.