Review by Greg on June 25, 2024.

Kobold is an entity easy to overlook, concealed behind their cartoonish aesthetics and not overtly serious attitude, but I wouldn't recommend sleeping on this amazing band to anybody. After a juvenile debut, already this sophomore Masterpace is a much more accurate showcase of their innate abilities that solidified them as one of my favourite revival thrash outfits around – one more hailing from the Serbian borders, to boot, yet having few things in common with my beloved Quasarborn, beyond being both based in the country capital Belgrade, and Luka Matković's reappearing at the production desk, meaning we'll get another killer-sounding album regardless of the end result. Let's dive into it, then.

From the first notes of the title-track and opener, we sure are in for a threat. The rhythm department was totally revamped, and even more than the incessant blast beats courtesy of Marko Stefanović, it's the bassist upgrade that deserves the spotlight, as Stefan Stanojević simply does whatever he wants around the songs. The song itself is way more extreme than the speed-infused early days, with the riffing often trespassing black, or at least blackened death, territory, and also frequent growls as the best counterpart to main man Elio Rigonat's unhinged vocals. There's even a 'Left Hand Path'-style melodic coda as a very welcome plus. Overall, it's safe to say it eats the whole Death Parade for breakfast. Despite having opened the album with its most plausible MVP, though, the most admirable thing is that Kobold still find a way to keep the quality level sky high with the subsequent 'Deus Ex' and 'Ad Astra' – if I had a nickel for every time they used a Latin title, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice (three times if we count the subpar 'Vertigo's etymology, by extension). Same recipe, same end result, same fair share of curveballs, like the visionary bass solo of the former, or the sung bridge of the latter – as also closer 'Fractured' reaffirms, as a perfect compendium of everything heard before. 'Blood Drops' is another experiment with a softer track, at least in its first half, and while it should have deserved a less shrill vocal performance, the piano and guitar parts are way more beautiful than they have any right to be, although not lasting long before getting back to the massacre.

And then there's 'Thrash Overlords'. I'm pretty sure you know some of those elaborated, thought-out albums that however arrive at one point where the band goes, 'you know what, fuck it, let's just rip shit up' and records the most pissed off, over-the-top riffs they manage to conjure, slaps a name to them and calls it a track, right? 'Thrash Overlords' is exactly that, the 'Serial Killer', or 'Suicide Command', of Masterpace. A less serious detour, but also a rhythm guitar seminar. Last time I put it in my car stereo I touched 100 mph with my hatchback, so, um, let's just say it knows how to convey its message.

Masterpace marks a staggering rebound from the unripe, crude speed/thrashing of Death Parade, to the point that it almost seems like a totally different band (although yeah, most of it is). I don't have a fixed recipe for a killer album, but when a band manages to cram this much stuff into an album, sound terrific in the process, and still wrap up the whole package in less than 40 minutes, you can bet your sweet ass I'm in. If you have never heard of Kobold and you're reading this, you have no excuses now.

Rating: 8.8 out of 10