Rough Edge: Neuraxis CD Reviews

NEURAXIS

"Asylon" (Prosthetic; 2011)

Reviewed by Mike SOS

For over 15 years, Montreal metal machine Neuraxis have been whipping up a smorgasbord of tumultuous technical metal across the globe. Their latest release, "Asylon," contains ten tracks of unhinged aggression and pristine musical expertise colliding, as the squad’s devastating demonstrations of metallic punishment relentlessly go for the jugular and express no signs of the band resting on its laurels or slowing down.

In fact, despite not one single original member remaining in the unit, Neuraxis impressively continues to create a similar strand of the forward-thinking yet destructive style of heaviness that they have championed since their inception, complete with a bevy of blast-beat brutality and death metal intricacies that are wondrous to behold (“Sinister”).

Boasting an apocalyptic abundance of crushing riffs, belligerent vocals, and complex compositions working in cahoots to develop a chaotic cranium-bashing experience (“Trauma”), Neuraxis delivers a slab of top shelf futuristic death metal that does not disappoint.

For more information, check out http://www.myspace.com/neuraxis.

"The Thin Line Between" (Prosthetic; 2008)

Reviewed by Metal Mark

Montreal’s Neuraxis play a fairly technical, semi melodic brand of death metal that seems to thrive more on smoothness than on actual aggression. They do rattle off at a rather rapid fire pace as they often just soar into their songs with little build-up. I think their approach of launching into most of the tracks helps to pull your attention straight in to what they are attempting to accomplish.

Melodies make up a big part of the material here and they handle them with a good deal of finesse. I didn’t take to the album immediately because I think that some of the heaviness that could have been present is slightly lost beneath the gloss of the overall sound. I think the CD may have benefited from some sharper cuts and hooks because there were a number of times where it feels a bit one dimensional.

There are more than a few times, however, when Neuraxis lets loose with spine jarring moments that were both slightly surprising and certainly welcome. It just seemed there were too many times where they kind of glided into a rather limited sound array of sounds and I could just feel the indifference rising inside me.

The drums seemed more focused on speed than on actual heaviness and the difference left a few songs sounding a bit hollow. The vocals were also a bit repetitive and began to drone on at times without any real emotion or change in pitch. I like their control of the pace, but the details within the songs vary from fair to good.

"The Thin Line Between" is a decent release, but not as heavy or dynamic as I would have liked it to be.

For more information, check out http://www.myspace.com/neuraxis.

Rating Guide:

A classic. This record will kick your ass.

Killer. Not a classic but it will rock your world.

So-so. You've heard better.

Pretty bad. Might make a nice coaster.

Self explanatory. Just the sight of the cover makes you wanna hurl.

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