NEURAXIS - The Thin Line Between CD
Prosthetic Records
Quebec must be the new musical capital of Tech Death Metal since they've bestowed on us such acts like ION DISSONANCE and DESPISED ICON to name just two, there's plenty more up there. So here we have NEURAXIS from Montreal who by the way are not newcomers at all. Their "Trilateral Progression" release from a few years ago is still on the minds of those who were punished by it. To the band's credit NEURAXIS perform what I'd say is mathematical precision when it comes to their musicianship. They've also got some brass balls by putting on here an eight minute plus title track. Songs like "Dreaming the End" display guitarists William Seghers (who replaces their former guitarist Steven Henry) and Rob Milley as a tight cohesive duo playing to one another's strengths. The same can be said about them on other cuts in particular "The All and the Nothing" and on "Deviation Occurs". Vocalist, Alex Leblanc, (who replaces the departed Ian Campbell, no he's not dead, he just left the band) has got the classic Death growl vocals to muscle his way through all the cuts on here. But that's all the props I can hand over to this band from the great white north.
My problem, or maybe I should say prejudice, with this is that it's too intricate. By the mid-way point through this release I lost all interest in it. The Tech Death Metal genre has become the home of mechanized drum sounds, computer processed guitar tones and studio enhanced vocal chord shredding. This musical genre is completely soulless. It's progressive boredom where technical skills and polished production values overshadow gut feelings which Death Metal once had. So fuckin what if you can play your way out of a paper bag. The key to all good music is whether or not I will remember you. And in the case of this CD, it's memory is fading away fast.
www.prostheticrecords.com
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