France, the land of fine wine, culture and a certain elevated level of class that is almost unrivalled across the globe. Recently there has been a resurgence from the Heavy Metal underground of France, today specifically we cast a spotlight to ZÖLDIER NÖIZ. The seemingly unstoppable three-piece have returned with their third studio album "Merci".

The artwork is a bit of an enigma. Both busy and quiet, superficial yet deep. The obvious image of the nuclear blast encased with smaller hat tips to the disastrous industry that creates this. It is a style I have not really seen a lot of and that to me makes it all the more special.

Opening the album is "Termination Race" with a no-frills atmosphere we are thrown into a relentless and aggressive pace that just pricks your ears as a listener. There was an interesting use of reverb, however for me that slightly detracted my attention from the quality of this solid track. The following track, "To The Lord His Due" was a lot more musically heavy and just reminded me of a good old school Thrash track, one that really gets the blood pumping, the pits moving and everyone having a fucking good time.

The energy and pace seem to be untiring as we fly through "Escape Holy Wrath" and "Hand Of Steel", the latter chiming in again with some standout guitar breaks, something that appears to be a common feature amongst many of the tracks! "Heaven Street" pulls back the flow slightly and creates a slightly more heavy and dense sound, a welcome break in the hurricane of Thrash that we have weathered thus far!

In the latter half of the album, if I had to pick two stand out tracks (believe me this was harder than I thought it would be!) it would have to be; "Earth Lethal Zone" and "The Devil Is In The Details". The standard of musicianship and overall musical knowledge and knowhow was just superb. The all instrumental "The Devil Is In The Details" really just gives you a taster of what these guys are capable of as musicians and leaves you wanting more.

Overall, this was a fantastic album. The standard from start to finish was excellent, with the pace and energy unwavering from the get go. The only slight issue I found was the standard of recording threw me off slightly, predominantly in the vocal lines, however the effect that it generated may or may not have been its intention, I am not the artist, simply a fan providing a commentary. To ZÖLDIER NÖIZ, keep up the good work, I look forward to hopefully getting to see you either in the UK or France, and from the bottom of my heart... Merci.