14th November 2023

Review: “Overwrought” by Neurectomy

What’s in a name? It can be everything and it can be nothing. In the case of New York Technical Death Metal act Neurectomy, their name is a reference to the surgical removal of a nerve and ties into the band’s interests in medical themes and the human condition. A band who feature John Longstreth of Origin fame on drums, their debut album “Overwrought” is something of a Pandora’s box of curiosities. The drum tracks were recorded at Silver Chord Studios, which just so happens to be owned by Joe Duplantier of Gojira and were tracked by the French titans front of house engineer Johann Meyer (Urne, Rise Of The Northstar, Car Bomb). Once completed, the album was then mixed and mastered by Christian Donaldson (Cryptopsy, The Agonist, Suffocation) from Cryptopsy with assistant engineering from Dominic Grimard (Ingested, Signs Of The Swarm, Beyond Creation)…

After a fleeting tease of “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins from Longstreth on the drums, the electric arc furnace that is Neurectomy melts the brain in seconds with fretboard smouldering Technical Death Metal at its finest in “Abducted for Research“. The drums are unrelenting, the vocals caustic and the bass pulverising but it’s the guitar work that blows the mind. Tapping sections and leads at breakneck pace give this rampage the kind of vibrancy that other bands kill for and the energy of it is like grabbing an electric fence with both hands and receiving 8000 volts. After that opening debacle “Culinary Cadaveric Art” has a deliciously dramatic stomping groove, the bass solo adding something left field and inspired as the scorching vocals burn the hairs of the ear canals. The blend of audible uncleans and those which require a research degree as the throat is used as an instrument is balanced on a knife edge with cuts like “Anencephalic Birth” approaching Slam levels of brutality. Sweeping leads on that one are masterful, the artillery shelling of the kit like a thunderstorm from which the lightening guitar work descends. Cuts like “Dolphin” become a white knuckle ride of pure adrenaline, as if the band looked at each other with s*** eating grins and played the cut as fast as they could without getting injured in the process. Speed that bends and breaks all the rules of the natural world and some of the unnatural one. There are moments that sound like controlled bedlam and yet the band never decent into complete and utter madness.

Sandwiched between the insanely technical riffage there are also moments of pure Death Metal chug as “Zombified” testifies to and they feel like pauses for breath in this nightmarish reality. Underneath the anarchy there are a wealth of nuances, including some free form jazz but it does take multiple listens to hear them, such is the melt your face off style of the record. There is just so much going on that the brain can not cope with all the input all at once. Blast beats and incredible technical drum fills are at the heart of “Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progres“, the savage and often tongue-in-cheek humour of the lyrics lost in the storm of instrumental aggression at times. There is a brutal roar at the end of this one that belongs to an apex predator however so be warned. The album title track “Overwrought” is arguably the most restless and relentless of the eight cuts, taking the brutality and insanity to the next level. It goes off like a Molotov cocktail, causing death by a thousand lacerations and yet there is a macabre melody in there to be found. Grand finale “Crimson Tsunami” brings down the blood stained curtain on this display of razor sharp showmanship with some 90’s Death Metal nostalgia in fleeting moments. That perhaps suggests there maybe more than all out flamboyance to Neurectomy in the future, that is if their calloused hands recover from this anarchy. The riffs are spellbinding and they are more than a one trick pony but it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to survive much longer than the half an hour of power that this offers without spontaneous combustion… [7.5/10]

Track Listing