I'm understandably weary of listening to an album that opens with a riff damn near identical to Metallica's "Fight Fire with Fire". It's bad enough that a band thought it could get away with a note for note transcription of a riff they didn't write, but the audacity to try and take one from a band as monstrously popular as Metallica is just baffling. If I wasn't taught to judge slowly, Drzavni Neprijatelj Broj Kec (say that five times fast!) would've found its way to the recycling bin after nary a full minute into the first song. Thankfully, the plagiarism morphs into mere influence after the opening riff. There aren't many more blatantly borrowed riffs (the first riff in "Trece Oko" is a notable exception, being extremely similar to "After the Holocaust" by Nuclear Assault), but there sure are a lot of moments that make you think "Damn, D.R.I./S.O.D. would be proud".
Simply put, NadimaC play visceral crossover thrash with enough punk influence to only induce the moniker, not the sound. This is thrash to the core, full of razor sharp riffing and chaotic, blazing leads. Fans of early Sadus and Nuclear Assault are sure to find plenty of good material here. One thing I find to be of interest is that NadimaC share a vocalist with Daggerspawn, a Serbian tech death band. I haven't heard any Daggerspawn material, but the fact that the vocalist has a history with such a style of music makes his vocal style actually make a little more sense, as he'll sometimes belt out a deep grunt or higher scream, and these frankly sound infinitely better than the yelling that dominates the record. To me, this shows that his prowess lies in extreme vocals, not crossover shouts.
Underneath the Ed Repka reject artwork and the blatant riff copying in the opening riffset, Drzavni Neprijatelj Broj Kec (which translates roughly to "Public Enemy Number One," in case you were wondering) is actually a very solid thrash romp, if a little back heavy. "Dlake Na Sapunu" and "Zmajeva Jajca" are probably the most memorable, but I'd rank "Hrani Babu Da Te Ujede" as my favorite. NadimaC is nothing groundbreaking and will probably be swept away and forgotten in the grand scheme of things, but it's fun while it lasts.
RATING - 69%
Originally written for http://www.metalcrypt.com
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