Review: Neurotic Machinery – A Loathsome Aberration

Style: Death Metal, Prog Metal (Mixed vocals)
Review by: Cooper
Country: Czechia
Release date: 16 July, 2022

Since 2006, Neurotic Machinery has been honing their brand of technical death metal, releasing albums regularly yet still remaining well underground. When I saw the band with over 15 years of history, a new album on the way, and the killer single “Transcendental” already released, I got excited, and thus I selected A Loathsome Aberration for review. Sadly, with their sixth studio album, Neurotic Machinery delivers a just passable assortment of unfortunately much-too-similar songs that, as a whole, fails to impact me in any significant way.

A Loathsome Aberration begins with promise. Its first song, “Aberration”, hits the ground running with an absolute monster of a riff that continuously shifts in and upon itself as the song gains momentum, almost as if pure energy is being stored until it finally collapses into the downtempo, plodding breakdown that concludes the song. The riffs, while not anything groundbreaking (low chugs accompanied by melodic, background chord work), were stimulating. The drums were powerful, albeit slightly overplayed, and the lyrics, while treading in familiar territory for metal, evoked powerful imagery of self-estrangement, emboldened by the dual vocalists. On paper everything looks great, so what’s the issue? Well, apart from a few exceptions, each song that follows sounds nearly identical, and any attempts to add unique elements fail to make an impact.

For instance, the third track, “Particles”, introduces saxophone for the first time in the album. However, because the sax sits so low in the already wall-of-sound mix and because the song seemingly does nothing to even highlight the presence of saxophone, it doesn’t stick out in my memory as I think back on the album. Recent death metal releases from bands like Rivers of Nihil, Burial in the Sky, and even At The Gates were able to strongly feature saxophone thanks to the way their songs seem to have been written with the instrument in mind instead of seemingly added as an afterthought.

Thankfully, not all of Neurotic Machinery’s additions to the death metal formula fall flat. “Self Suppressed”, in addition to being the longest track on the album, is the only to reach anything close to quiet dynamics which makes the heavy, double bass punctuated riffs that come after no longer monotonous but actually satisfying. “Self Suppressed” is also the only song to feature clean vocals from a female vocalist which offers a pleasant juxtaposition to the dual screamer approach that’s been in use since the start of the album. I only wish that the risks taken on other songs paid off as well.

Tracks 5 through 7 all fall into the “more-of-the-same” pitfall that plagued the first half of the album, but there is even less here to differentiate them. On their own, each track varies in quality with “Blame” being my favorite of the bunch with its stop/start drum motif, but they still blend together in my mind thanks to the cut-and-paste riffage, generic song structures, and now stagnant vocal approach. I would suggest that at least one of these songs should have been cut, but the album’s already lean run time makes that seem like an unreasonable solution.

However, just when I thought all hope was lost, A Loathsome Aberration managed to deliver one final gem through its closer, “Transcendental”. Featuring the best buildup in the album and a section that felt it was actually written with a saxophone in mind, this track manages to conclude the album in quite the climactic manner, leaving quite a good taste in my mouth for such an overall lackluster album.

Ultimately, Neurotic Machinery dropped the ball on this album but in the process managed to create a few great songs. If A Loathsome Aberration had been left to marinate before release for a little bit longer, I feel like many of these issues could have been alleviated and I would be writing a much different review. As it stands, however, A Loathsome Aberration falls short.

Recommended tracks: Aberration, Self Suppressed, Transcendental
Recommended for fans of: Rivers of Nihil, Black Crown Initiate
You may also like: Alustrium, Burial in the Sky, Irreversible Mechanism
Final verdict: 5/10

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Neurotic Machinery is:
– Ondŕej Uhlíř (vocals)
– Jan Pilík (vocals)
– Michal Sedivy (guitars)
– Aleš Haník (guitars)
– Martin Janů (bass)
– Martin Bárta (drums)