Neckbreakker – ‘Within The Viscera’ [Album Review]

Where do you even begin with an album like Within The Viscera, the debut offering from youthful Danish skull-maulers Neckbreakker? Spewing up a savage cocktail of neck-snapping death metal/grindcore and clearly weened on a diet of bands like Cannibal Corpse and Entombed, the Danes really know what it takes to deliver a flawless death metal album.

From the savage, old-school artwork adorning the front cover of the record to songs like “Putrefied Body Fluid,” where you’ll be circle-pitting around your bedroom before the first verse kicks in, these Danish newcomers pack everything you could want into forty-six unstoppable minutes. Like a bulldozer running through your guts, “Shackled To A Corpse” and “Purgatory Rites” see the Danes deliver an orgasmic feast of blast-beats, grooves, mosh-parts, and guttural vocals demonstrated gloriously on recent single “Absorption,” which, like the rest of this album, is just pure, psychotic savagery.

The real beauty of this album, though, is that there are absolutely zero surprises on it. Right from the get-go, it’s obvious that the Danes are on a one-way mission to pulverize you into a bloody gibbering mess and by the time the rather appropriately labelled “Face-Splitting Madness” has left nothing but a pile of broken bones and bloody limbs for any circling vultures to pick over, the Danish savages have well and truly accomplished their mission.

Musically tighter than the proverbial gnat’s chuff, every individual element of this sound locks together effortlessly to create a mammoth wall of grooves, crunch and sewage-splattered vocals. The frightening precision with which it all locks together before we’ve even got sixty seconds into opener “Horizon Of Spikes” is quite astonishing, so much so that, by the time vocalist Christoffer Kofoed has finished gargling with your brains, you’ll think Neckbreakker are a bunch of gnarled-up veterans not the bunch of rabid youngsters who have actually barfed up this glorious effort.

Death metal has seen something of a resurgence amongst the new generation of bands in recent years. Heading into 2025, it looks like Neckbreakker have the throne in their sights, and unless you want to be left in an unrecognizable heap by the side of the road, you’d best get out of the way if you see them hurtling your way.

Within The Viscera Track Listing:

1. Horizon Of Spikes
2. Putrefied Body Fluid
3. Shackled To A Corpse
4. Nephilim
5. Purgatory Rites
6. Unholy Inquisition
7. Absorption
8. SILO
9. Face Splitting Madness

Run Time: 46:08
Release Date: December 6, 2024
Record Label: Nuclear Blast Records