On
Neuraxis' fourth studio release, they've truly become the band they are today (minus a few more personnel changes; they've suffered astonishing membership upheavals over the years). Their brand of technical death metal has none of the jazzy fluidity of genre pioneers like
Atheist,
Cynic, or
Pestilence, and the prog rock melodies that they'd occasionally pulled out on earlier albums like
Imagery and Truth Beyond… have been almost totally excised in favor of pure blasting power. To some degree, this simplifies their music, as the schizophrenia of early work has been tamped down, but their songs are hardly simple or crude. Twists and turns abound, tempo changes and arty solos lulling the listener into a false sense of security; you think you know what's coming, but you don't. Riffs come barreling at you from all directions at once in a kind of metal version of mixed martial arts --
Neuraxis are after the high-speed takedown, attempting to get the listener to tap out. But if you can last the whole 35 minutes, it's a hell of a ride and will change the way you think about technical death metal. ~ Phil Freeman