Neuroma - Northern Discomfort

I'll get this out of the way first and foremost - "Northern Discomfort" is a split album, with Liverpool's Neuroma on side A and Hartlepool's Dawn of Chaos on side B. The reason I'm listing this as a Neuroma release is because I am only reviewing Neuroma's part of the record here since Dawn of Chaos' side is pretty atrocious and I didn't want this article to be so crudely black and white.

Neuroma are a band from Liverpool UK formed in 2006 under the moniker 'Quadraspaz', which they changed to 'Neuroma' in 2007 for obvious reasons. Right, now these guys play death metal with a bit of a more lighthearted approach to lyrics and titles - the music is just as relentless as any Cannibal Corpse or Gorguts record, but with song titles like 'Dingoes Ate My Baby' and 'Sodomised and Carbonised' these fellas bring the humour in droves whilst still managing to make you bang your head ridiculously hard amongst your fits of giggles.

Where to start... it's really difficult to know where to begin with this lot. Opening track, the aforementoned 'Dingoes Ate My Baby', starts off with a sample of Bart Simpson followed up by a whirlwind of chainsaw riffing and throaty growls.... which is as good a way to kick off a record as any I guess! The band isn't neccessarily original or innovative in any way, but they're certainly masters of delivering a crushing performance as a very tight unit, with vocalist Gregg Cowell using some extremely effective growls throughout the five tracks present here. 'Sodomised and Carbonised' is another stomping slab of liverpudlian deathiness that will kick you in the teeth with the frankly brilliant drumwork of Harry Kokelaar, who - as with everyone here - delivers nothing new, but he's definitely out to show what he's made of with some extremely punishing rhythms, complimented extraordinarily well by bassist Joe Mortimer.

This is where things really start to tickle our funny bones, with 'Purple Reign' (nice reference there lads) kicks off with some admittedly hilarious scouse banter, almost in the same vein of a Monty Python sketch, before it erupts once again into more tasty deathy goodness. Apparently the intro, title and lyrics to this track are based on smewhat of a 'legend' in Liverpool by the name of 'Purple Aki', which is echoed in the intro; "Let me feel your muscles boys!" which, I'll admit, had me in stitches but a lot of people won't get the joke. However, the track itself is the fastest one yet with some utterly violent drumming and the riffs... God DAMN, the riffs! Paul and Matt really pull them out here, with some obvious Morbid Angel/Cannibal Corpse influences that make for an almost nostalgic feel that you'd never expect from a band these days. Unless they're y'know, Morbid Angel or Cannibal Corpse. These guys are some of the best players I've heard from the UK metal scene for quite some time, playing some extremely tight and precise stuff with what seems like very little effort and still managing to make the band sound genuinely good as opposed to another carbon copy of what's come before. Hats off to the lads!

The last two songs are by far the most controversial, but also the funniest - 'Malignant Vagrancy' is, quite literally, a song about how annoying homeless people are. Simple as that, these guys are pissed off about hobos asking for change all the time and if this song is anything to go by, they're really, REALLY fucked off about it - this song oozes a vibe of simmering hatred and disgust for these cancerous leeches, which is bound to piss some people off big time. This is spurred further by the closing South Park sample of the infamous "I don't have any change" line, which I genuinely thought was pure genius. This pales in comparison to Neuroma's final track though, the oh-so-coarse and cleverly titled 'Portugese Takeaway' which is about the Madeleine McCann fiasco. Once again, this track is musically spectacular and keeps itself in the same vein as the first four songs but the touchy-caring ones will want to avoid listening to this at all costs. Or send the band a bucket of ebola.

In terms of the band's production, they've done a brilliant job making sure that they get the death metal balance just right - for a start, unlike so many death metal bands these days, Gregg's vocals aren't totally upfront in the mix so they blend in with all the instruments to complement the music as opposed to being 'singled out' so to speak. The guitar tone and especially the drum sound are all perfect and the bass is nicely audible, thoug when the band speeds up you do tend to struggle with hearing certain parts here and there. But overall, Chris Fiedling did a great production job here, and I hope to hear him working with these guys again in the future!

Right, now onto the slightly negative aspects. Gregg's vocals are one slight issue - don't get me wrong, he's an absolute fucking beast of a vocalist and he growls with the best of them, but that's all he does. There're no high scrams or anything, it's all growly growly growly growl, and I suppose it'd be unfair to say that it didn't work because it does. But all the same, it makes some of the songs feel too 'samey' in places - which is a general issue with these songs anyway. They're all brilliant in their own ways, but when played from start to finish you sometimes wonder which is which, and that can put some people off greatly so I'll have to very reluctantly mark Neuroma down a point for these little inconsistancies. Some people would say that their lyrics and song titles pigeonhole them as a gimmick, but I don't agree with that sentiment too be honest with you - gimmicks are never this good.

But anyway, the bottom line is that Neuroma have recorded an excellent set of tracks here that really show off how capable they are - they're easly one of the best bands in the United Kingdom right now, and that's saying something. As I mentioned at the start of the review, this is a split release with Hartlepool's Dawn of Chaos whose songs I really don't feel are good enough for me to include here without unfairly baiting them, so "Northern Discomfort" is actually ten tracks long - howver, it goes without saying that Neuroma are the reigning champions on here. I saw these guys supporting Obituary just four days ago in Sheffield, and they're an absolutely devastating force to be reckoned with, and their new song - entitled 'Killed to Bits' - shows signs of improvement from their few flaws here. A full length album with Chris Fiedling at the production helm again would skyrocket these guys, and they deserve it - pick up "Northern Comfort" whenever you get the opportunity. For an unsigned band with such a maddening sense of humour, these spud-faced scousers are here for the long run. Keep an eye out for them!

Neuroma
1. Dingoes Ate My Baby
2. Sodomised and Carbonised
3. Purple Reign
4. Malignant Vagrancy
5. Portugese Takeaway

Dawn of Chaos
6. Deaths Masterpiece
7. Perverted Pleasures Through Intoxicated Clarity
8. Worms
9. Death Camp
10. Take the Cadaver


Grindethic Records
Reviewer: Dave Ingram Jr.
Mar 18, 2010

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