NERVECELL - Psychogenocide

March 6, 2015, 9 years ago

(Unique Leader)

Greg Pratt

Rating: 7.0

review black death nervecell

NERVECELL - Psychogenocide

Those "just cram 'em together" album titles that bring to mind Swedish bands in 1993 never do anyone any favours (always ends up sounding like the local Pantera-aping bar band, don't it?), but I trust Unique Leader Records as one of my dealers of high-quality extremity of the tech-death ilk, this particular splatter originally issued on you-forgot-about-them-didn't-you? Lifeforce Records in 2011. Nervecell are from Dubai and incorporate a small amount of Middle Eastern sounds into their swirling death and heavy thrash, and it helps, but the band should be using their individuality more, because much of the album is very capable but very been-there-done-that DM.

A song like "Upon An Epidemic Scheme" lays down the double-bass-led death with much capability, the song conjuring up all sorts of Morbid Angel, Hate Eternal, and Nile images, but the relentless plodding DM gets a bit tiring throughout the album: more dashes of personality like the oppression-slaying guitar break in "All Eyes On Them," the interesting dynamics of "Amok Doctrine," or the sludge of "The Taste Of Betrayal" are needed to keep this band from sliding into the gutter and being forgotten. Not entirely convinced this needed to be reissued (a mere four years after the original pressing, to boot), but this band has tons of potential, if they can just get more confident with being Nervecell instead of just being any number of USDM bands that have laid down the foundation of the sound they could be, and hopefully will be, expanding on.



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