Review by Jason Guest
Since 1996, Sao Paulo, Brazil’s Nervochaos have created a stream of aggression and brutality of high quality and integrity. The fifth full length from this bunch of bruisers, To The Death continues in that tradition. Openers ‘Mark Of The Beast’, ‘Sheep Amongst Wolves’ and ‘Your World’s Trend’ are standard death metal and serve as evidence of their credentials. But three tracks in and Nervochaos have done very little except impress with their ability to stick to the template. And so it goes for most of the album. There’s the occasional spark of inspiration in the riffs and some of the arrangements such as in ‘Mind Under Siege’, ‘Destroyer of Worlds’ and ‘Warlords Unbound’ – all found at the back of the album – but this is too uniform to be anything other than good. With changes appearing exactly where you’d expect and being pretty much what you’d expect, it becomes rapidly flat and predictable.
Nervochaos’s delivery is one of unfailing conviction and uncompromising determination but in the grand scheme of things, this is just another death metal album. It’s a pretty good homage but it’ll do little to differentiate Nervochaos from the ever-growing pack of old school devotees hell-bent on rehashing what’s been done, well, to the death.
5 out of 10
Track listing:
- Mark Of The Beast
- Sheep Amongst Wolves
- Your World’s Trend
- Gospel Of Judas
- The Exile
- To The Death
- Hate
- Smoking Mortal Remains
- Mind Under Siege
- Delusions And Lies
- Destroyer Of Worlds
- Warlords Unbound
- Wolves Curse
