Without wanting to jump straight to the business end of this review, this record is fantastic. Funnily enough on my first two listens of the album, I wasn't convinced. First listen, it seemed stale, boring and I really couldn't get into it. Second listen it continued to sound bland and stagnant. So what changed on the third listen? Honestly, I have absolutely no idea. It just clicked, and I loved it. Albums that are 'growers' I find intensely irritating, I lack patience and so often struggle to continue giving a record the benefit of the doubt, I'm glad I soldiered on with this.

In the last review I wrote, for DIMELESS' "White Lion", I said Thrash has never really gripped me as much as other sub-genres of Metal. I'm being made to eat my words as this is the second Thrash album in a matter of days that I've thoroughly enjoyed.

I'm not going to follow with my normal protocol of highlighting the songs that I think are standout tracks, because I think that would be unfair on the ones I didn't mention, if this says anything between the lines, it's that the album is relatively similar all the way through. But screw it, even if it is similar, it's still good so who's complaining? Anyone? I thought not.

Furthermore, there are tracks which take a slightly different line to keep a hint of variation. "War" has a cool little choral part at the end, took me by surprise I can tell you, considering the high speed intensity that I'd settled into by this point, but it works and as it sounds like a youth choir does give the impression of melancholy and lost innocence that a song concerning war needs to give the track a sense of realism, rather than the worthless glorifying that can happen with such a topic. "Die with Pride" features Paul Di'Anno, and a slightly more Punk feel to it, which is where Thrash is rooted anyway, and it's a corker of a track as well. It's also good to know that Paul Di'Anno is still hanging around, I always just assumed he'd fallen off the radar a bit since the early days of IRON MAIDEN.

All in this album (eventually) worked for me, I really do love it. There's the odd solo dotted about, but the rest is just driving rhythm, pounding drums, that sadly on one or two occasions get a bit lost in the mix although only rarely. Quite often that's all I need, raw power and high tempos and I'm more content than an alcoholic at opening time.

Ralf Runkel's vocals also took some time to get used to, but again his slightly hoarse voice just fits into the script perfectly, there is maybe one moment during album closer, "The Answer", where the sound dips to a much more melancholic feeling that maybe his voice doesn't suit quite as much. But I think we can forgive him just one little mis-judgement

In a way this album sums up what I love about having the opportunity to write reviews; a band that I had never have heard of, and might well have avoided due to my idiotic theory that I don't much like Thrash Metal, and yet having to listen to it properly in order to write a review I discover that it's a great record. It's going to be stuck on repeat for some time.