MOVE OF THOUGHT

'Move Of Thought' - Neuromist (6/10)

From a miniscule Eastern European republic that has only garnered recent musical attention for their dance-pop Eurovision contestants, one might not expect a death metal band from Moldova. However, where there's a will, there's a way, and death metal act Neuromist has been able to break out of their country onto a more international market, despite very little initial exposure from the outside world. However, in a region of the world that can be said to have had a very dark and turbulent history, this band seems to have found a perfect birthplace for a metal band. As their debut, 'Move Of Thought's strong display of talent and band tightness will undoubtedly make them one of the up-and-comers in the world of metal, but there are a few issues this band needs to rectify, before they will be able to create something excellent with their skills.

The music here falls very deeply within the realm of technical death metal, an American scene-inspired, bass heavy mix of dissonance, rhythmic experimentation, jazzy elements and alot of heavy riffs. In a way, this band shares the same field as veterans such as Florida metallers Athiest, but to a lesser degree of innovation. However, the songs flow very nicely between the heavy and mellow, jazz-guitar elements. The highlight and go-to track here is 'Rebuilt Babylon', which closes off the album with an epic flair, the first sign of clean vocals, and throws in riffs that are as memorable as they are heavy.

One of the more recurring issues I have with the album here are the vocals of growler Vladimir Ghillien. While not necessarily a bad growler, his delivery is quite inconsistent. At times, he will go from some decent grunts that are reminiscent of Kidman from Meshuggah, but at other times it sinks to the point of a amateurish huff.

Instrumentally, the band upholds their technical death metal label quite well. Of particular note is the bass playing of Alex Petriuc, who- quite simply- steals the show. While many bands of similar ilk drown out their bassists in the mixing, Alex's dystopic style of playing is often at the forefront of the music. With that being said, Neuromist certainly shows promise as an up-and-coming death metal act, but with a little work towards finding an individual identity in the metal scene, the band could easily break out of the Eastern European scene to the rest of the world's metalheads.

"Move Of Thought" is the debut full-length studio album by Moldovan death metal act Neuromist. The album was independently released as a free download in March 2010. Neuromist were already formed in the fall of 2004, but several lineup changes have postponed the release of "Move Of Thought". The album was originally planned for a 2007 release.

The music on the album is technical death metal with progressive elements thrown in (semi- jazzy/fusion soloing). The musicianship are excellent and the band are more than capable of playing the many tempo- and time signature changes featured in the tracks. Although I hear influences from a varity of technical/progressive extreme metal acts in the music I´m actually mostly reminded of two of the probably lesser known acts in the genre in Tholus and especially Theory in Practice.

The sound production is decent, but a slightly more professional sounding production could have done wonders to an otherwise really great album. It´s especially the drums that feature a cold digital sound that doesn´t suit the music that well. However just to set things straight I´d like to point out that it´s a minor issue that doesn´t in any way ruin my listening experience.

"Move Of Thought" is overall a very intriguing debut album by Neuromist and despite my minor issue with the sound production, there´s little to complain about here. The songwriting is strong and at times very intriguing but without ever losing brutality and aggression and as mentioned above the musicianship are very strong too. This is definitely a band I´m going to follow. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.