In recent years Canada's Neuraxis has continued to improve and grow with the release of each album.  The band's latest, Asylon, sees Neuraxis continuing on this positive trajectory.

Asylon is a well-balanced blend of the band's recent past.  Neuraxis combines elements of brutality and technicality with plenty of melody and catchy hooks.  In fact, this combination vaguely reminds me of Decrepit Birth's Polarity albeit with less overall variety and less "progressive" tendencies.  The top-notch production helps to further illustrate this comparison along with a guest appearance by Decrepit Birth's own "lead hobo," Bill Robinson, on the track "Savior and Destroyer."  Granted, Asylon does not sound like Decrepit Birth, but Neuraxis creates from a different recipe while using some similar ingredients. 

For some reason, I had a creeping suspicion that Neuraxis was flirting with a more mainstream audience on its last album, The Thin Line Between, but I don't get that impression from Asylon.  The new album takes elements from The Thin Line Between and cranks up the intensity and the technicality.  It's like Neuraxis decided to blend the heavier sound of 2005's Trilateral Progression with the accessibility of The Thin Line Between.  The result is a forceful and intense album that manages to be catchy while still maintaining plenty of street cred.  Asylon is packed with an abundance of technical riffs, soulful leads, rapid-fire blast beats, and pulverizing double-bass to keep most death metal dudes satisfied.  "Purity" is the only song that might catch the listener off-guard on the first listen due to its oddly melodic harmonic-laden chorus which actually matches the theme of the song quite appropriately.  But "Purity" is so catchy that most people won't even care about the song's somewhat inconsistent atmosphere after a couple of runs through the album.

On Asylon, Neuraxis have done an outstanding job of walking the tightrope between being brutal and being catchy without sounding too commercial.  The album somehow feels "song oriented" while the band still crams tons of parts into each track.  There is so much for the listener to digest that one will hear something new with each listen, but there's also plenty to latch onto instantly.  This nearly flawless mixture makes Asylon Neuraxis' best album to date.     

TRACK LISTING

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*Comments:

1.  Reptile
2.  Asylum
3.  Savior and Destroyer
4.  By the Flesh
5.  Sinister
6.  Trauma
7.  Resilience
8.  Purity
9.  V
10.  Left to Devour

Total playing time:  39:36

Release Date: February 15, 2011
Label: Prosthetic Records

Neuraxis - Asylon

Reviewer: Roswell47

July 31, 2011