"Twenty-First Century" is the latest release from Italian Thrashers DEATH MECHANISM. True to the band's name, the album contains a lot of dark themes, but mostly it's just a frantic and fast foray into the world of Thrash.

DEATH MECHANISM are definitely on the SLAYER end of the Thrash scale. It's all extremely fast, and pretty brutal, and that includes the vocals from Pozza, but we'll get to that later. Overall impressions are positive, it's frantic, but it's not disorganized. It feels like a slick, well put together album, which impresses from start to finish. It's got a very 80's Thrash feel about it, and indeed, that's where their influences lie, but at the same time it feels new, with its own identity. The lyrical content is certainly modern, if you couldn't tell already from the album title - grappling with a lot of issues that these times have brought us. It's not all in your face music though, there's a few quieter moments scattered throughout that break up the tempo well, allowing the listener just that tiny bit of respite (if they need it, of course). There's a lot of energy flowing through this release, and if you want an album to get you completely pumped up, then this is the one.

Now back to Pozza's vocals. They sound like he's been eating sandpaper, very raspy - but fitting to the music that's backing him up. He goes a bit motor mouthed at times, and you're sat there wondering how anyone can sing that many words, that quickly. His guitar playing, along with Pedro's bass skill and Manu's drumming, were the real draw of "Twenty-First Century" for me. Like I've already mentioned, they're frantic but tremendously heavy, and somehow feel like a nice break from a lot of the other Thrash albums out there at the moment.

So despite being called "Twenty-First Century", DEATH MECHANISM's newest album is a nice throwback to Thrash's heyday. So if you're into that, then you should definitely check this out. A solid album, and one the band should be proud of.