A shorty, but a goody to start off the newest batch of reviews, and it’s always doubly gratifying when the band in question is a British band. Neandertahl have already built up an impressive touring roster, supporting the likes of Necrophagist on their sojourns to this tour, and their musical ambition and talent shine through this concise but exciting five-tracker.

Opener ‘Usurper in the Dark’ is an effective, creepy death metal track full of groove and unsettling atmospherics, with some particularly incisive guitar soloing from Aleem Raza (lead guitars), taking the track on a sprawling journey. ‘Mother and Father Deep’ continues in the Lovecraftian theme, with an almost Mudvayne bass-led complex main riff and churning, dissonant guitar riffs backing them. Darren Lavery (bass) provides a solid, impressive performance on the four-string, but also lends his voice to the proceedings. While the clear, well arranged guitars of Aleem and Stu Pendergast continue to add an extra dimension of quality to the cerebral arrangement of the song, it is perhaps the vocal performance which is most ripe for improvement. A hoarse, almost whispered rasp, it doesn’t really gel all that well with the rest of the band to my ears, and while the production is perfect every where else – including an enviable drum sound for Shakeel Raza, it could well be that the voice is either too weak in comparison to a very strong band, or that somehow the production has failed to bring out the best of his performance. Somewhat oddly, (and in direct contradiction to my usual opinion in these matters), I would almost suggest considering a clean vocal approach – particularly with a band brave enough to be as progressive as they are with the positively jaw-dropping ‘The Mountain Moves’, a vicious closing track with stunning instrumentalism and the courage in the song writing to have a Spartan arrangement among the staccato rhythms.

At five brief, exhilarating tracks, this is the perfect taster to an upcoming album which the accompanying blurb states is over 70% written already. Most impressive and further hope that the future of extreme metal in Britain can be as innovative and brave as it once was. Great stuff.

http://www.myspace.com/thisisneandertahl

Chris Davison

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