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Neuraxis: The thin line between

12/09/08 || The Duff

Canada’s Neuraxis was a go-to band when discussing tech-death, but doing some research into their underground status would reveal that little of their work prior to the band’s last album, “Trilateral Progression”, was particularly well known, chiefly due to albums “Truth Beyond”, “Imagery” and “A Passage into Forlorn” not having the best distribution. “The Thin Line Between” marks the ten year plus career-mark for these guys, and one would hope that it would continue the praise bestowed upon the album’s immediate predecessor, and therefore hopefully become the band’s true breakthrough release; with this mentality in mind, having ignored these guys up until now, I figured this new effort would be a great starting point for me to appreciate what Neuraxis had to offer; truth be told, I’m nowhere near blown away enough to warrant buying this or past releases.

One thing I see in a number of reviews of this album is that Neuraxis are clever songcrafters, and this I most certainly have to agree with; they seem to know how to structure a song while keeping it sufficiently unpredictable so as to retain the tech death tag. The musicianship is astounding as well, with many well-composed, awkward riffs, mixing triplets, staccato intensity, pinch/natural harmonics (one, the other or both, fuck you, I’m lazy) dark cleans, exotic scales and very stylish leads (if somewhat jagged), all played to an exact degree of accuracy; drumming that is never over-done but still flashy, highly appropriate (considering the aggressive nature of some of the riffs, still quite downplayed) and overall exhibiting a very well balanced style. I’m sure the bass is in there somewhere too, and more than competently played.

Aside from the over-produced, very monotone vocals, however (which can very easily be overlooked), this album’s major downfall is that a lot of it isn’t too remarkable; for every section that completely blows me away in terms of how original it is and the degree to which it demands the listener’s interest, there is to follow a very uninspired riff that sounds like very typical melodic Swedo-death, or just a simple, if slightly off-rhythm, chug-riff that seems present only to make the real tasty morsels slap out with twice the force. It’s a shame, because it overshadows this band’s very obvious talent, which I feel is grossly misrepresented on “The Thin Line Between”.

This disc displays a band a lot more melodic than I remember it to be from what I’ve heard off “Trilateral Progression”; maybe this is a departure for the band, but I don’t reckon this album to be the one to plant them firmly, and deservedly so, on the tech death map of astonishing, overly-capable artists taking the sub-genre forward. This still gets a seven out of ten – the songwriting and musicianship puts Neuraxis ahead of many, but whereas I don’t consider this a disappointment, I still feel “The Thin Line Between” could have been so much more.

7 potentially invalid under appreciations of a good thing out of 10.

Information
Released: 2008
Label: Prosthetic Records
Website: www.neuraxis.org
Band
Rob Milley: guitars
Alex Leblanc: vocals
Yan Thiel: bass
Will Seghers: guitars
Tommy McKinnon: drums

Tracklist
01. Darkness prevails
02. Wicked
03. Versus
04. Deviation occurs
05. Thin line between
06. Dreaming the end
07. Standing despite…
08. Oracle
09. Phoenix
10. All and nothing

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