Neuraxis
Trilateral Progression
Willowtip
More maple leaf malevolence
There must be something in the water. From Voivod to Gorguts, Kataklysm to Cryptopsy, the Great White North continues to spit up one improbably innovative band after another. Montreal-based quintet Neuraxis don’t play the weirdness card as forthrightly as any of the aforementioned combos, but the group’s specific strain of technical death metal is anything but ordinary.
Cynic is often mentioned as a relevant comparison, but Neuraxis more closely resemble a Cephalic Carnage given to pondering futurist existentialism. The band has neatly become more streamlined and sophisticated with each release, while sacrificing little of the brutality that charged earlier efforts. (Their previous output was compiled in an essential Willowtip set last year.) That process continues on Trilateral Progression. Less willfully frenetic than 2002’s Truth Beyond…, the new album serves up precision-tooled blasts cut with more than enough melody and variety to avoid monotony.
A riveting frontman, Ian Campbell commands a broader range of growls and shrieks than most throats can manage. Guitarists Steven Henry and Robin Milley might share a common spinal cord, so closely locked are their tandem flights. Bassist Yan Thiel frequently fattens the duo’s unison passages—and thanks to the fine work of producer Yannick St. Amand (aided by Jason Suecof’s mixing and Scott Hull’s mastering), his low-end efforts are brilliantly audible. No doubt the player with the most thankless job is drummer Tommy McKinnon, who replaces the phenomenal Alexandre Erian. But McKinnon, who knows the value of breathing space in his blasting, lives up to his predecessor’s supernatural standard.
—Steve Smith
