Holy colon, right from the get go, you get torn apart. The opening riff from these Norwegian blackened thrashers' fourth full length, Fields of Rot, completely takes the form of the track... Wicked, Vicious, and Violent.
What draws people to Nocturnal Breed? Is it the strippers that they use on stage? For some, maybe. For me, it was the completely destructive thrash riffage under the unrelenting black metal vocals. I cannot recall exactly how I discovered this band, but I can tell you that I am really glad I did. Fields of Rot and No Retreat... No Surrender are the only two records I have, but they are both highly recommended to metalheads of all shapes and sizes. Destroyer, despite the predictably stupid pseudonym, is a wonderful black metal vocalist, and strangely works extremely well over the raw thrash of the music.
This will be one of the shorter reviews I will write, purely because you can't really do a super detailed analysis of a record like Fields of Rot. The whole album is chock full of balls out thrashing intensity that rivals most anything to come out of the year 2007. I may place this in the top 10 of the year actually.... in fact it is almost certain. It is a shame that this band is as obscure as they are, because they really do deserve a large fanbase. This is a nearly perfect aural assault, no matter how you look at it, with the only shortcomings being the somewhat slow progression of In Sickness and in Hell and the lack of variety. Well... the latter statement isn't completely true, but cause the aforementioned track is a bit slower and more grinding (not in a bad way) than the rest. There is also the superb throwback to the days of Motorhead with the track Iron Bitch. So it is somewhat varied, but some of the tracks do seem to run together if you aren't paying really close attention. This does not mean that the album ever gets stale, it is completely destructive and relentless throughout the duration of the record.
Not much is really left to say except that this is one of the more intense thrash records of this decade. Choice cuts include the opener, Wicked, Vicious, and Violent, Code of Conduct, Iron Bitch, Scything Harrow, and Too Damned to Conquer, although you really can't go wrong with any song here. I'm getting a little tired of giving out consistently good scores here, but there is no denying that this record deserves it's A-. Maybe if they find a way to make the songs more distinguishable next time around, they will be even better. But what we have here is damn near perfect black/thrash, so pick it up if you can.
RATING - 92%
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