I always get excited when Comatose Music releases new music, so when I got the news they were releasing Neurogenic's newest album Ouroboric Stagnation, I was more than thrilled. Hailing from the Ukraine, North America, and Russia, this international trio have rallied together to deliver some extreme metal that will blow your socks off, or should I say, turn your socks into nifty little meat sacks toting your puréed feet flesh around as cotton encased liquid appendage balloons.
For fans of Putridity and Virulency, yes two very high quality brutal death metal acts, Neurogenic seems to find an excellent middle ground. Bridging the dizzying complexity of brutal death with precision slam placement, a complex stir-fry of pinch notes, changing rhythms and tempos, slathered with a thick overpowering syrup of blast beats, Neurogenic not only brings the diversity needed for originality, but the songwriting and structure to make an identifiable, and replay-able feast that does not get old.
"Soul Enthralled" is a prime example of extremely high speed slams incorporated into some skin blistering blast beats and almost double time off beat semi breakdowns/slams that are scattered throughout the song. It's surprisingly formulated into a noticeable patterns, so through the chaos of speed, tempo transitions, and shredding chugs and blasts, a memorable experience is developed.
An aspect that is not only a strength, but I believe is one of the few weak areas of the album, are the consistent, pounding blast beats. For this special style of math/slam, a solid groundwork of blast beats is expected, but Neurogenic must have challenged themselves to instead of fills, intricate transitions, or varied drum tempo, to just blast through the entire album instead. The result delivers an almost two dimensional blast beat and double bass approach with almost zero variety. Again, this is incredible drumming, but given the complexity of the songwriting and leading riffs, it can leave the listener questioning the (still very good and entertaining) drumming.
With just one complaint, this album still illuminates that dark musty basement with a skin stretched lampshade Ed Gein would be proud of. Definitely a top tier brutal death metal release in 2016.
Score: 7.5/10
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UISk0SbX8o[/youtube]
