A great many bands are returning to the "old school" (edit) "paying tribute to the classics" (edit) "we're actually a Metallica cover band playing originals" mantra; a great many of those, unsurprisingly, fall under the treads of mighty battletanks of bands... Already doing the same thing.

Between that and that oversaturations of Axe-FX and proggy-for-the-sake-of-it new-age nonsense comes bands that take you back to the burgeonings of extreme metal but tint your glasses a colour other than rose, as if metal were to take a different direction. Bands like DESTRÖYER 666, PRO-PAIN or BASTARDIZER, perhaps... Or French newcomers, KOPPER8. I say newcomers, but the quartet is made up of veteran musicians. They play a chunky, blistering array of Death-Thrash sledgehammers, and their new album, "Addiction", is just that.

Every track is sung in French which, under the brutal, guttural guise of Tex, might come across as unusual to unprepared ears and, in my opinion, makes the music hard to get into. Skipping past "Beast", the unconvincing opening track made so by the odd awkward drum pattern, the following title track delivers in most departments. Strong riffs that tap out between heavy gallops and solid grooves, and smart Songwriting what I thought was first going to be a funerial, CANDLEMASS-esque delivery, was a raucous throwabout of Death Thrash, with hints of PRO-PAIN. Unfortunately, the album feels bland and uninspiring (I mean uninspiring, as opposed to uninspired; this music is meant to make you want to rip heads off and get drunk) up until "Evanglie", which might just be the candidate for 'best track on the album'. Intricate riffs, feel-good chord progressions and a powerful vocal delivery raises it head and shoulders above the rest. Reaching its peak halfway through is less of a testament and more of a worry, though a couple of gems are found in the remainder of the tracklist, with neat variation in styles between the shredfest "Born to Die" and the breakdown-heavy "L'Eloge de la Folie".

In short, there is something for (almost) everyone with a penchant for the more extreme side of heavy metal; in most cases, KOPPER8 successfully meld the groove-laden elements of old-school death metal with ripping Thrash vibes. "Addiction" is not the most convincing album in its field but then again, should metal ever be a competition?