Serbia isn't a place I would usually look for when it comes to extreme Metal, but surely INFEST is a very heavy and angry band in every sense. Blasting Death Thrash for a little less than 30 min in "Cold Blood War", INFEST is an interesting band with loads of experience behind them as this is their 4^th full length album since their inception.

Starting off with a heavy atmospheric "Intro", where the listener can hear some loud chanting of a religious man pleading the father of the church to save him. The band in doing so makes its lyrical content crystal clear that it's mostly about anti-religious themes, but on a closer listen to the rest of the album, one can come across lyrics touching Death and war as well. From the next song the band pretty much ups the tempo and goes berserk and mayhem and shows shades of Brutal Death influence, while still keeping the music at large to Death Thrash boundaries. While it's not entirely Brutal Death, the song slows down to mid tempo in the latter half bringing in more head bang-able riffs and also few cheesy guitar solos. On repeated listens of the rest of the album, I get a feeling that the band would sound more convincing in a live show than with a studio album, due to their sheer rawness of their music and the huge element of mosh-pit friendly music. While the vocals of Zoran "Vandal" Sokolovic (who also does the Rhythm Guitar work along with lead Guitars Tyrant) is mostly of thick screaming vocal style and remind me of the vocal style implemented by the band VADER, the riffs are thick and along with the fast blast beat drumming of Zombie make the album sound more Death metal-ish than anything of Thrash. The drums in "Cold Blood War" are loud and lead the give a free flow to the music and even makes the bass sound very interesting. While technically the each musician and the band as a whole do sound ordinary and mundane, but it's the brutal drumming and occasional addictive riffs that are the trade mark of this album and is sure to please the connoisseurs of the above mentioned genres. "Demonic Wrath" has to be the most impressive song in this 10 track album, with its anthemic vocal screams and easy on the ears factor. The next 3 songs go back to their original style with the album, with the songs flirting on the lines of Brutal Death metal, still managing to sound Death Thrash with the occasional thick mid tempo riffs. The last song, weirdly named as "Neka Vatre Gore" is a bonus track and is surprisingly good even from the first listen. This is the only song giving you the old school feel due to the production and has the unique atmospheric feel even while the musicians go in full high tempo speed Death metal and reciprocating the old school feel that was intended.

While "Cold Blood War" is a good album, it's not ground breaking by any means considering all the genres the band explores here. Nevertheless it should impress most Brutal Death fans, especially fans of VADER. Into their 12^th year of existence INFEST shows a lot of maturity in the song writing and in bringing out interesting riffs, but does disappoint in some phases due to lack to innovative direction. While as mentioned above, the production and lyrics seem convincing, I get a feeling that the band can incorporate little more of atmospheric feel in their next album and also bring in more guttural vocals, as the vocals of Zoran "Vandal" Sokolovic here are not bad, but doesn't have the teeth to rise the album to a level that the band might have intended to.