Nervecell: Psychogenocide (2011)

Review

Nervecell is a death metal band operating out of the United Arab Emirates, although their members are from Jordan, Lebanon, and India. That's reason enough to be interested in their sophomore release, Psychogenocide, even if I didn't already like their debut Preaching Venom.

Nervecell play what is decidedly modern death metal. It's somewhat (but not excessively) technical death metal that's brutal enough and is cleanly produced, with a great production that allows you to hear every instrument. The vocals are in a great death growling style, similar to Necrophagist.


Actually, they sound a lot like Necrophagist if you toned down the technicality. In other places, especially when they incorporate Middle Eastern influences, they start to sound a little like Nile, e.g. "شنق – Shunq (To the Despaired…King of Darkness)" or the folk intro. Some of the songs are fairly memorable, too, like "Upon an Epidemic Scheme", the title track, or closer "Nation's Plague".

But all in all, they don't bring anything new to the formula, and the songs aren't so great that they set themselves apart from the pack. It's just good death metal, not great death metal.



The Verdict: This one's going in the bin right next to Abysmal Dawn. If you love that band, chances are you'll love this. And it's certainly a good album, so if you want it just to stick a pin in the UAE for your metal world map, it's worth it. But on its own merit, it just doesn't stand out from the crowd. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.