Human Chaos EP review [September 2005]

Publication: Metal Rules
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen
Country: USA/Canada

"I bet if I made sort of a calculatory summary on how many of you know names of metal bands from Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, I would expect to see only a couple of hands raised up in the air. I would have been one of those ignorant ones like a month ago, having no idea what´s this band called Nervecell from Dubai is all about. But now I can gladly announce to be a bit smarter.

Nervecell emerged early in the year 2000 consisting the founding members Barnaby Ribeiro on guitars, Brogan Costa on vocals and Hatem on drums. Since then the band has suffered from some line-up changes ´til the end of 2003 when Nervecell became a 3-piece band and has stayed that way up to this very day. With this line-up the band also recorded their 2-track demo titled VASTLANDS OF ABOMINATION which gained a lot of response for them from all over the world. A few months later, after hours spent for a hard practicing, the guys hit the studio again to record their debut E.P. which was baptized, HUMAN CHAOS. This 5-song offering contains re-recorded versions of the first demo and 3 other songs that are considered as Nervecell´s ´old school classics´ amongst the people who obviously know a bit more about them than me.

Nervecell´s musical style could be described pretty heavily Bolt Thrower - influenced as that´s the first thing that comes to your mind when listening to this E.P. even if they quite don´t reach the same level of technicality as their fellow British war mongers. Also, somehow Demigod´s legendary UNHOLY DOMAIN -era pops up in my mind for some strange reason while spinning Nervecell´s E.P., so undoubtedly this may be a true wake-up call for all of you old school Death Metal diggers out there. The band´s vocalist Rajeh sounds like a cross between Kam Lee of the U.S. Death Metal veterans Massacre and Dave Rotten of Avulsed whereas both Rami and Barnaby try to support Rajeh´s deep and guttural vocal outburst with their killer ´Bolt Thrower´ish´ riffs, solos and leads the best they can. So yes, Nervecell´s mid-paced Death Metal will surely appeal to many, but I truly hope the guys are smart enough to get a real drummer for their next release instead of programmed drums. At times these programmed drum parts on this otherwise so promising release, really starts irritating me, kind of ruining the band´s fine status for incorporating a classic old school Death Metal sound for the songs. The programmed drums just aren´t meant for old school Death Metal, so get rid off them ´til your next release, ok?

Anyway, if you are looking for bands with old school enough Death Metal sound, then don´t look further as Nervecell´s plate has been stuffed with all those delicious ingredients you might want to order from the yesterday´s menu. You see, that stuff won´t ever have an expired date stamped on it. Some things are meant to last forever..."