Neuropathia "Graveyard Cowboys" CD
[Selfmadegod]
Here's what this Polish band calls "horror grind", which to my ears sounds very similar to early Exhumed/Impaled, and therefore early Carcass, sans most of the melody. You know the drill: Lots of speed, ultra brutal growls mixed with higher screams and some unique midrange grunting/shouts, that really textured and thick guitar tone, a thrashy sort of vibe to the otherwise death/grind framework, etc. It's pretty straightforward writing, and not bad at all. Unoriginal, yeah, but they do it right with short tracks that cut to the chase. There's a nice melodic solo in "Permition for Necrofile" (that's how they spell the title), but they tend to keep such elements to a bare minimum. The title track is much more rocked out and melodic, it's strange... it's actually a great song, the vocals are sort of growled in key, it sticks out from the record like a sore thumb, but I still like it. After two minutes of vinyl popping sounds there are five bonus tracks crammed into the 18th track marker on the CD, all of which are cover songs, and all of which are awesome. Agathocles' "Scorn of Humanity", a two-in-one shot of Dead Infection's "Maggots in Your Flesh" and "After Accident", "Malignant Defecation" by Carcass, a song called "At Start at Least" that I'm not familiar with, and then Napalm Death's "Deceiver". Fucking awesome. The recording is really good for this style. Like a lot of these bands I feel that the vocals are slightly out front, and the drums can be dominant during the faster areas, forcing the guitars and bass to get a bit more confused in the center, but for the most part the sound is dead on, and I'm really not bothered. The percussion sounds good, the guitar tone is perfect, the bass is nice and raw (a little more volume wouldn't hurt), and the vocals are fine. Admittedly the layout is incredibly boring, showing nothing but bland band photos and the band logo, where the band is dressed in suits and posing in a church with crosses and crucifixes and stuff like that. No lyrics or anything are within the booklet, just plenty of somewhat goofy band photos that aren't visually entertaining at all. Granted I doubt I'd care about the lyrics to tracks with titles like "Lumberjack Madness" or "Bloody Christmass", but whatever... the design could look a lot better. I like the music, though. I wouldn't choose this over the originators, nor some of the bands since who've also mastered the art, but Neuropathia is absolutely right in line with the ranks of others following such footsteps. The record may look pretty weak, and it may be stuff you've heard before, but I'm into it, and the five or six minutes of bonus material totally crushes. (6/10)
Running time - 35:00 (approximately), Tracks: 22
[Notable tracks: Permition for Necrofile, Uncle Frank, Bad Taste, Graveyard Cowboys, and all five of the cover songs...]
Selfmadegod Records - http://www.selfmadegod.com

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