Serbian thrash metallers KOBOLD have released a second full-length album entitled Masterpace on July 1st, 2019 via IBDC label.
You can stream the entire album via Bandcamp widget below.
KOBOLD is a Serbian metal band founded in 2015 with the self-release of the EP Madman’s Overture. Since then, in 2017 band has self-released another live EP and the debut album Death Parade.
The band has been constantly active in the Serbian scene. Thanks to its presence, on stage and online, the band is soon contacted by the Mexican label “Iron, Blood & Death corp.,” motivated by the Facebook video of a rehearsal where the band played an early version of the first song of the new album. The band soon re-released its debut album on CD in 2018 and makes a deal with the label for all further releases.
The band then enters “Citadela Sound Production” studio in November and records its second album titled Masterpace in just five days. The band records the album in a completely new line-up with Marko Stefanović on drums and Stefan Stanojević on the bass guitar, that bring new musical influences to the band. The album is characterized with the elements of death, black and prog metal, longer songs, more complex arrangements and parts, abstract lyrics and experimental approach.
The album is, just as the debut album, produced as a “live garage recording of the band”, with least takes possible, no editing, no overdubbing with “impossible” parts in the context of a three-piece band and without layering tracks other than the necessary ones. In essence, it is a raw recording of a band, without polishing, just as it sounds in the given moment.
The process of the album recording can be seen in the “Studio Report” videos on the band channel. The name of the album Masterpace is a made-up word that means “maximum possible speed”, which in one way relates to the band’s approach to music, where each musician pushes their instrument to the absolute maximum, and in another way it relates to the lyrical theme that tells a story of a neurotic modern world, guided by the motives “faster, better, stronger”. A world which strives to go up, but with each step we fall further down into the oblivion.
Track listing with commentary from the band on each song is available below:
1. Masterpace
“The title track of the album deals in detail with the downfall of society, directly proportional to its neck-breaking speed of development. Through its course, the song instrumentally and vocally mercilessly depicts a “neurotic” theme, and only, in the end, slows down, giving a breather to the listener, symbolising the peace after the collapse.”
2. Deus Ex
“The song deals with the theme of naive dismissing of ecological problems by the corrupt world capitalists, that is very real and will impact us all, no matter our social status and class. By ignoring the situation, they hope that somehow some force will just intervene and solve all our problems, but that is the furthest from the truth as possible. As the endless winter comes, the song halts briefly in the middle, delivering a chilling riff, depicting a new era of humanity after the end of days. Deus Ex is also the song in which in the third section every band member gets a moment to shine with Stefan’s bass solo, Marko’s groove rhythm on the drums and Elios multi-finger-tapping rhythm section.
3. Ad Astra
“A classic speed/thrash metal song in the spirit of the last album “Death Parade”. It also delivers the heaviest breakdown of the album.”
4. Vertigo
“A song that, through the eyes of a fictive crazed war veteran, depicts an artificially twisted reality of the ordinary little man, constantly bombarded with the news of a coming war, apocalypse, spies in its vicinity and constant conflict. Driven mad, he goes into the street and inflicts his wrath upon the people, seeing everyone as an enemy, even those closest to him. The instrumental follows the theme of madness through dissonant arpeggios and constant double bass riffle bombardment.”
5. Thrash Overlords
“This song is a musical and lyrical attempt at uniting all the layers of the scene, from the old guard to the youth. Be it thrash metallers, punkers, metalcore fans or any other group, we are all a part of the same scene and we can’t survive without mutual understanding. We are all bound by a more or less same subculture and together we are the strongest, not to mention that it’s a lot more fun to stage dive and mosh when there are more people on the gig.”
6. Blood Drops
“A song that, apart from the usual instruments, contains some keyboard playing by Elio, but by the second minute already goes into a speed metal riffage.”
7. Fractured
“The song deals with an invisible killer called “depression”, which is, as it seems today, impossible to run away from, but that is still misunderstood and dismissed as “laziness, weakness of the character” and other ignorance. Depression is a disease, not a decision. Musically the song follows the theme of the lyrics, with drastic mood changes throughout depicting the mental state of the person it revolves around.
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