Human Chaos EP [December 2005]

Publication: Metal Fan
Reviewer: Rascul
Country: The Netherlands

"You'd sometimes be surprised where there's Death Metal being made. I remember I was quite flabbergasted when I heard Malaysia has a blooming Death Metal scene and even Malta has got a few good bands. Nervecell beats it all, because, believe it or not, they're from the United Arab Emirates. If there's someone around here who's able to mention another metal band from that neighbourhood, I'd like to hear. With a remote, death metal-unfriendly country like this you'd expect some crappy band with a cranky underground production who would do better to keep within the borders of its country. Fortunately, this is surely not the case with Nervecell. This band stands for heavy mid-tempo Death Metal with a lot of core-elements, and the production is, to my surprise, crystal-clear and balanced. The guitar riffs sound aggressive and heavy, and James Khazaal's deep grunt incidentally touches the superb brutalism of his colleague Glenn Benton. The songs are well structured too and contain original elements, like the parts where the Arabic/oriental roots of the band members can be heard. The spheric opening of Vastlands Of Abomination is one of them, and so is the Iron Maiden-like guitar lead in the middle of the title song.

Nonetheless, there are some points of criticism too. The songs may sound aggressive and clear, they sometimes lacks things I would expect. The use of computerized drums does't really make the production its best and apart from that, I really miss the typical fast blast/thrash tempos that made metal once so interesting. Take the opening riff of the title track for example  after such an aggressive Bay Area-riff, you'd expect a polka beat, but this doesn't happen, again this is my own opinion. Those small disappointments are quite minor on some of the songs and that's a pity, because there's certainly nothing wrong with the skills and musical ideas of guitarists Rami and Barney, but certainly if what I expected is there, the whole record would've been at a higher level. However, Nervecell is only just at the beginning of their career and based on this EP I think this sure won't be the last or best effort we'll ever hear from them. They may not live in the most metal-friendly country in the world, but they sure had a good start."