Middle East extreme metal pioneers, Nervecell, have set August 25th as the release date for their forthcoming third album, Past, Present...Torture. The album will be released through Lifeforce Records in most part of the world, while Metal East Records is handling the release in the Middle East region. Guitarist Barney Ribeiro recently spoke with Lebanon's own Metal Bell Magazine about the release. An excerpt is available below.

Q: How different is the new Nervecell album from your past material? And how would you describe the sound of your new album?

Ribeiro: "This is such a brutal record man, honestly the most intense and dynamic stuff we’ve ever done before as a band. Anyone who’s been a Nervecell fan and owns our previous records will hear the difference instantly. It wasn’t a deliberate decision to go more extreme or anything, it’s just us naturally growing as musicians and doing what we love. Simply put, we went into this record wanting to step up the game a little and that’s exactly what we came out doing. If you compare our past material, I guess the difference this time around is how we wrote these new songs. Rami and I decided to write individual songs on this record for instance, we also dropped our tuning down on this record too. Both Rami and I traveled to France especially to record the drum tracks there with Kevin. We wanted to be there while the drum tracks were being recorded and call the shots on the exact ideas and all the minor details that we had in mind being the core songwriters in this band. So we really approached things a lot differently in how we brought this record to life and we made sure we got what we wanted."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

It is a fine line to combine brutality, technical requirements and harsh accessibility in such a way, that the result leads to extreme songs, which listeners like to hear and which they can remember. Nervecell master that impressively. The addition of Middle-Eastern folklore accents contributes a decisive part to this.

The Dubai-based band is, above all, an uncompromising death metal band, but the charm of the “special ingredients” always resonates. And this is how Nervecell find to musical differentiation. Past, Present…Torture marks the group’s third full-length and is the successor of Psychogenocide from 2011.

Past, Present…Torture was mixed and mastered by Wojtek and Slawek Wiesawski at Hertz Studios (Behemoth, Decapitated, Vader) in Poland, the cover artwork was created by Colin Marks of Rain Song Design (Origin, Exodus).

The album consists of 13 tracks and is the most extreme and versatile Nervecell record to date. The title speaks for itself, focusing on the state of the world and where we are all headed as a civilization. Past, Present…Torture serves as a concise summary for both, the lyrical message and the musical direction. Offering unpleasant truths and a rigorous death metal sound. Just as you know and expect from the beast from the Middle East... Nervecell.

Past, Present...Torture tracklisting:

“Intro”
“Aadvent”
“Proxy War”
“D.N.A. (Diruo Nocens Acervus)”
“Abyssviand”
“Hypnosis”
“Malice Within”
“Dawn Of Decimation”
“Habitual Deceit”
“Maqabre”
“Tree Of Lies”
“Treading Beneath”
“Past, Present... Torture”

“Proxy War”:

Nervecell have been confirmed to support Nile when the band play Dubai, UAE on August 5th at The Music Room. Go to this location for ticket information.