NECKBREAKKER

This has been yet another year of immense fruitfulness for death metal. So much so, in fact, that we probably won't need any more new bands for the foreseeable future. Oh well.

NECKBREAKKER have appeared out of nowhere and, much like many of their contemporaries, are breathing new life into a genre that was already pretty lively. Formerly known as NAKKEKNAEKKER, this Danish quintet are very young and full of promise. Snapped up by NUCLEAR BLAST for reasons that will swiftly become apparent when you get your ears around "Within The Viscera", they specialize in a precocious strain of death metal that favors groove and hooks over mindless bludgeon. Implicitly ambitious, this is a debut album that demands its own spot along the modern metal spectrum. It is also disgustingly heavy and wildly entertaining, as NECKBREAKKER slap down their pit-starting credentials with the mad-eyed alacrity of the truly devout.

We can only pray that NECKBREAKKER do not fall victim to the usual flurry of distractions that occur at this time of year. "Within The Viscera" is a fantastic debut album that deserves to reach a huge audience, but records released in December can easily get lost amid the end-of-year frenzy. Fortunately, the Danes are so devastating and dynamic that it seems likely that the thrill of these songs will extend comfortably into the new year.

The three singles released so far will certainly have alerted people to the coming storm. Opener "Horizon Of Spikes" encapsulates the band's sound beautifully: scything, groovy riffs that repurpose the momentous grind of old-school death metal, a powerful, raw-throated vocal from frontman Christoffer Kofoed, and an overall sense that despite being far too young to remember the early '90s, NECKBREAKKER are channeling the deceptively accessible brutality of ENTOMBED and bolstering it with several fuck-tons of sludgy hardcore and a dash of classic metal flair. As a formula, it is shrewd and sharp. As a sound, it is a monstrous declaration of violent intent.

"Putrefied Body Fluid" might have a title that hints at goofiness and bloodthirsty horror shtick, but it is grim, melodically inventive and defiantly mid-paced. Similarly, "Shackled To A Corpse" is lyrically gruesome ("The smell of rot emanates in this chamber of misery…") but otherwise untouched by old-school spirits. Instead, NECKBREAKKER lean hard into contemporary notions of streamlined heaviness, with nods towards post-metal and sludge adding to the songs' overwhelming girth and weight. "Nephilim" is a terrific death metal song, but with flashes of unorthodox weirdness bursting out from its prolonged pile-up of riffs. Likewise, "Purgatory Rites" begins with a deft nod towards BOLT THROWER, before tearing off in an entirely unexpected direction, lightly blackened and steeped in underground tenacity.

Put in simpler terms, NECKBREAKKER make bright and vital extreme metal that is destined to cause abject fucking chaos. The call of the brutal mosh-pit is audible throughout "Within The Viscera", and songs like the hulking and haughty "Unholy Inquisition" sound strategically designed to send death metal diehards into a state of frothing mayhem, and closing murder yarn "Face Splitting Madness" is likely to push them over the edge. "I stalk my kill throughout the darkness," roars Kofoed, adding that "you'll never escape this face-splitting madness!" And he has a point.

Loud, confident, vicious and vital, "Within The Viscera" is a deathly debut that looks beyond the underground, to bigger stages, bigger things and a bright and bloody future. As 2024 fizzles to its conclusion, NECKBREAKKER are just getting started.