ALBUM REVIEW: Within The Viscera – Neckbreakker
Until September of this year, Danish death metal upstarts NECKBREAKKER didn’t have a single song on Spotify, yet had generated such hype through nothing but their incendiary live shows that they were being courted by the world’s biggest metal label. Between September 5th and November 6th, they released one song a month from their debut album and, as of today, that trio has nearly 120,000 hits combined. It’s a seriously impressive number, but such is the excitement that surrounds the young Scandinavians. Now, the other half-dozen tracks on inaugural record Within The Viscera are ready to be heard, and they’re all coming via the excellence of Nuclear Blast Records.
If you think such a mighty build of anticipation was shrugged off by the quintet of vocalist Christoffer Kofoed guitarists Joakim Kaspersen and Johan Ludvig, bassist Sebastian Knoblauch and drummer Anton ‘Hajn’ Bregendorf, think again – NECKBREAKKER admit that they felt a ‘certain amount’ of pressure to deliver an album that has matched their fast growing stature. When all is said and done, that pressure was worth it – Within The Viscera does as its name suggests, a visceral, near 50-minute assault on the senses that, whether people have finalised their End of Year lists or not, will give them serious food for thought just three weeks out from 2025.
There’s no subtle opening – Horizon Of Spikes, the first track to be released online, is the album opener and sets the tone for what’s to come perfectly; there’s plenty of groove, chugging riffs, double bass pedals and downright filthy gutturals. It’s also got one of the cleanest productions of the year, which can put people off if they like their extreme metal on the grittier end, but here it just magnifies the riffs to ginormous levels, allowing for a significant impact.
Impact is certainly a key word, because Within The Viscera rattles through at pace, each song delivering a punch of some sort as it comes and goes. Putrefied Body Fluid and Nephilim deliver guitar hooks reminiscent of SLIPKNOT at their darkest, when Iowa was new and the nine were on the deadliest of forms. Unholy Inquisition goes into blackened death territory with Bregendorf‘s double kick complimenting the low string shredding perfectly, one that will delight those who love nothing more than a good finger waggle to blast beats and the likes. Purgatory Rights is the bastard child of SLAYER and DECAPITATED, a furious, erm, neck breaker that has as much in debt to the thrash movement as it does the death metal scene and Face Splitting Madness, the closing track, starts off deliberate and doomlike before kicking back into top gear from a guitar ring to deliver the final, devastating blow.
The most insane thing about this terrifying juggernaut of a record is that you can tell NECKBREAKKER are only just getting started: it’s the sonic equivalent of a 50kg kettle bell to the side of the head, but there’s also a sense that the next one will be double the heft. In Within The Viscera, this youthful outfit show that not only have they developed serious extreme metal chops already, but that they’re brimming with potential and more than capable of reaching the next level.
Rating: 8/10
Within The Viscera is out now via Nuclear Blast Records.
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