Name changes can be important. Many great bands start out under completely different names only to find a quick re-evaluation of their brand is key to their eventual success.
In the case of Neckbreakker, language appears to have been at least partly responsible as their recent name change alters nothing in its meaning, just the form in which it is delivered.
A good decision as Nakkeknaekker really doesn’t carry the same weight as it probably does in their native Danish.
Independently released debut Within the Viscera certainly deserves every chance to break as many necks as their name demands, the five-piece’s brand of ultra-violent Death/Groove Metal a welcome addition to the ranks of Extreme Metal.
Covering all the usual genre staples of religion, blood, devastation, death, war, horror, as the blitzkrieg gets underway with “Horizon Of Spikes,” the savage opener frothing with pummelling drums and riffs sludgier than the average quagmire.
“Putrefied Body Fluid” allows the rhythm section of bassist Sebastian Knoblauch and drummer Anton Bregendorf to come to the fore, some serious skin-pounding and four-string punishment certain to leave several body parts on the floor. Boasting an irresistible, heads-down groove and some wicked, darkened melodies, the monstrous “Shackled To A Corpse” piles on the aggression, vocalist Christoffer Kofoed sounding like he’s about to regurgitate his spleen at any given moment.
After a slow, discordant opening, “Nephilim” becomes another surging morass of riffs, low-end Cannibal Corpse-style hammer-ons, and more neck-wrecking rhythms, Kofoed now seemingly not content until he vomits up at least two more major internal organs before the end of the album.
Elsewhere, cuts like “Purgatory Rites,” “Absorption” and “SILO” all possess the same kind of feral, uncompromising brutality while “Unholy Inquisition” somehow manages to feature an opening riff that, under any other circumstances, could almost be described as jaunty. Almost.
After a darkly atmospheric intro, closer “Face-Splitting Madness” erupts into one final ferocious melee of riffs and throat-ripping vocals, the song ending with a nightmarish soundscape filled with Slayer-style tremolo effects as guitarists Joakim Kaspersen and Johan Lundvig are finally allowed to rest their bloodied and bruised fingertips.
A well-produced forty-odd minutes of unhinged Death Metal violence, Within the Viscera is a serious gut-punch to the senses, but one you’ll want to experience again.
Buy the album here:
https://neckbreakker.bfan.link/witv
7 / 10
GARY ALCOCK
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