It is fairly known, and quite logical, that every band starts out as vision of a single individual or a group of people. Some say that the best of bands out there were the outcome of different revelations conceived by artists that were playing something else entirely. I can agree with that notion even though I was a bit perplexed with the new release of the Norwegian ZEROZONIC that has came forward with a sophomore album, "God Damn, Better, Best", released via Mayhem Music. Just to get your mind straight, this band has been the vision, and an entirely different idea, of one of the live members of SATYRICON and the constant BLOOD RED THRONE's guitarist, Daniel Olaisen, as he chose an unusual direction in order to satisfy his own hunger for groovy music.

I think that ZEROZONIC, before and during the list of "God Damn, Better, Best", is one of the better working grounds where Thrash Metal, Nu Metal and Hardcore converged and made fight. Just to be correct with you, when I meant Thrash Metal, it wasn't nearly close to the old school sense, this journey has been modern all the way. ZEROZONIC's insight towards modern Metal seemed to me like a nice twist where PANTERA and MACHINE HEAD met CHIMARIA, HATEBREED,SYSTEM OF A DOWN and DROWNING POOL in a dark alley and made a few laughs on their way to the bar to get seriously drunk. Lest I forget to mention, it looked to me that a little that road was also blended with a small dosage of black humor.

In general, though I wasn't amazingly impressed by "God Damn, Better, Best" as I saw the tracklist as pretty much nice and kicking, it didn't pinch me as I would have wanted. As for the production, I liked what was made here on this release quite a lot. It reminded me the superior productions of later MACHINE HEAD and PANTERA albums. The sound was tight, heavily crunchy, and accurate, solos were given a nice backward like scenery yet seemed to hit right in the spot, drums and bass thundered with might while the vocals soared on top.

The way I distinguished them, it looked to me that ZEROZONIC do like the feel of power in their sound and therefore in their material, I really liked their spirit and their energies. "Enter Night And Day", "Fake", and the cool thrashy rhythm based "Instrumentalcase" charged with poisonous fumes set for the charge. Nevertheless, I think that the rest showcased here was fun but it didn't move me enough. Don't get this wrong, ZEROZONIC is not the average Metal band as they haven't been nailing themselves into a single Metal subgenre, yet on this particular release, with their presentation of strong American like intentions, they blasted their way into the worldwide scene, but didn't entirely conquer my notions.