R.O.D. - HateSpeech

R.O.D. - HateSpeech (DEFENSE Records - CD 2021)

I'm not big expert on the Polish thrash metal, to be honest. I do know there’s quite a solid number of young bands out there, but I don’t really bother myself to check their albums or whatever they have to offer. There are very exceptions from that rule obviously (Excidium, Warfist and Bloodthirst among others)… but they are very few. And that takes us to R.O.D. and their third album “HateSpeech”. I don’t remember if I’ve ever heard them before, if I did then I completely erased that fact from my memory. I doubt also that “HateSpeech” will help R.O.D. become my favourite band of this year, but this album isn’t that bad. Actually, it is solid and listenable piece of thrash metal.  

There are few things, which I like about “HateSpeech”. One is that aggression and whiplashing riffs they have all the way through their album. R.O.D. doesn’t waste much time and really puts some fuel into the fire, getting that nice, energetic feel. Cool. Obviously, their riffs aren’t the most extraordinary thrash metal you will ever hear, but it’s OK if you want to simply listen to some thrash with a bit of crossover. Another good aspect of the album is that it’s just around 25 minutes long (or short), which helps a lot to avoid irritating feel of thrash overdose. A quick couple of spins are enough, the CD can go back to the shelf and wait for its another turn. Also, the production is pretty damn good. Are there any things I don’t like? Well, some vocal parts probably are not my favourite. But I deliberately decided to avoid reading lyrics, which I heard are quite idiotic here and there. I don’t care. Musically it is not so bad at all. 

Verdict: 70/100