NECKBREAKKER
NECKBREAKKER “Within The Viscera”
By Dr. Abner Mality
When the whole “old school caveman death metal” revival started, Nuclear Blast Records was kind of late to the game. The best of the younger bands like SKELETAL REMAINS and FROZEN SOUL were already snapped up elsewhere. That leaves bands like NECKBREAKKER for them to sign.
This is the most workman like album I’ve heard in the genre. I can’t say these guys are a “bad” band, but everything here is generic like “Great Value Death Metal”. I suspect these dudes were straight hardcore in the past because there’s a lot of breakdowns here. Not to the extent of the worst deathcore bands, just enough to be really predictable. They try some different types of DM...”Nephilim” has some dissonance, “Unholy Inquisition” is meant to be the epic with plenty of riffs...but even that doesn’t make things stand out. There are no performances that stick in your mind, no little tricks that the better bands use to stand out above the herd. It is heavy as hell and not wimpy in the least, but my God, something has got to stick in your head after you hear it. It just doesn’t happen on “Within The Viscera”.
These kind of albums are always tough to review. I would imagine these guys probably kill live, but I can’t see NECKBREAKKER ever doing much more than opening for the likes of CANNIBAL CORPSE or OBITUARY when they come to town. For the next album, take some time and try to write songs that are more than just genetic death metal.