It is not always a good idea to judge a book by its cover. There are a lot of clichés that exist which explain the folly of jumping to conclusions, and they probably all apply in this case. I saw the black, scratchy, splayed out, unreadable logo, the pastiche of anatomical horrors on the cover, the tongue in cheek song titles and immediately leapt to the conclusion that what I had in my hand was yet more horribly generic gory death grind. I was expecting a ludicrous blast-fest with absolutely no originality, hooks, song writing flare or anything I would actually enjoy.
Well, I am very pleased to say I was wrong. Very wrong in fact. This gang of gruesomely comedic death metal fanatics from Liverpool have released a fine debut album, one which they should be very proud of. It is not really a surprise that this first album is so finely crafted and professional-sounding, at least two of the members are in other well known underground UK bands.
Instead of a ludicrous, monotonous, blasting pile of white noise, we have a dark, grisly and technically excellent death metal album, which absolutely crushes everything in its path. I am loathe to describe it as `technical death metal’ however; it IS technical, and there some amazing guitar gymnastics present on all tracks, but unlike a lot of those blasty, widdly bands, these guys really know how to cave your skull in with dark, heavy, gargantuan riffs. Also setting them apart from those other bands is an excellent sense of rhythm, there is a lot of great, heavy, headbanging groove throughout the album which really grabs you by the cranium and starts kicking. By groove, I don’t mean funky breakbeats or beat downs (no core stuff here folks!), but classic, pounding death metal.
For a first album this is an astonishingly accomplished piece of work. Paul and Matt’s guitar work is stunning throughout, and there are even a few brief but awesome solos, something you don’t hear too often in the underground death metal world these days. In fact, all the instruments shine brilliantly on `Extremophile’, partly thanks to the fantastic production, which has exactly the right balance between crystal clear and devastatingly heavy. Gregg’s vocals manage to be dark, aggressive and guttural but also pretty clear, you can actually hear the lyrics, which are sick, gruesome, witty and quite nasty as you’d expect! Harry’s performance on drums is exemplary, with some fantastic dynamics as well as face-melting brutality. The only instrument that doesn’t stand out is the bass, but the bass is normally a supporting instrument, and there is more bottom end on this album than an elephant with piles.
So, I started listening with an eyebrow raised in cynicism, and finished with my jaw on the floor. If you like dark, heavy, grisly, pounding death metal with a lot of flair and talent (as well as some very funny song titles and sick lyrics), and are fans of Unmerciful, Carcass, Suffocation and whole heap of other classic death metal, you may very well be as impressed as I was.
http://www.myspace.com/neuromametal
Jon Butlin
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