Never judge a book by its cover.

In this case, I thought I was going to HATE France’s Kause 4 Konflikt: the name, the excessive Ks, the masked, combat fatigue clad band members, the self described ‘offensive war-core’ styled music, every thing screamed shitty Slipknot clone or awful nu metal tripe. And indeed, the opener intro “The Call” seemed ready to cement those fears with gang chants over a used Slipknot riff and a breakdown.

However, things changed and changed quickly and I soon found myself listening to a rather good, and very energetic modern thrash band that has more ties to Slayer and predominately Dew Scented with their very tightly wound form of death/thrash. And, with songs and lyrics that are all centered around war and all things war, the term ‘offensive war core’ actually made sense with further, enjoyable listening.

Granted, this is not ground breaking and it gets a bit samey a few songs in, but there are some killer, taught riffs contained on this short but sharp album. Other than the opener, it’s pedal to the metal, foot on your throat intensity that’s centered around war with song titles like “Overwatch”, “Red Mist”, “Soldier’s Carrion”, “Semper Fi” (which uses the famed rifle mantra from Full Metal Jacket in its lyrics) and “SW.M16”. There are a few breathers by way of some classic thrash grooves and if you can get over the image as well as a few gang chants amid the gruff death/thrash vocals, there is a lot to like here. There’s hardly a wasted note with each of the 8 full tracks delivering a pretty consistent mix of tightly produced, full throttle, riff heavy, blasting thrash (closer “Line of Hate” is pretty fucking intense) and plenty of militant marches (i.e “Geneva Memorandum”) and a few typical war-like samples scattered about, even if nothing really stands out. It’s all just high octane, high energy and pretty convincing musically and thematically.

The album never overstays, being over in that half an hour sweet spot, which is fine considering the raging, similar sounding content, but for a short salvo of pretty unbridled thrash that has a modern cordite smell overlaying some classic thrash influences, these French guys deserve your ear. Not only as they are pretty surprising musically but also shattering the myth that the French are total pussies when it comes to anything related to war. Good shit.

[Visit the band's website]

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