NEUROMIST

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.

There are many reasons to like Neurmist's first full length album. Whether it be the rock solid guitars, beautiful drums, or Vladimir Ghillien's vocals. One other cool thing about this album is that the songs blend well into each other, creating a nice fluid sound. Occasionally this fluid sound is broken up with sharp drum beats that intervene every so often, or a screaming guitar lick. The sound is a cross between Death and Opeth, especially in the song "Lost Grip" where some of the vocals are very Opeth like.

"Lost Grip" may be my favorite song on this album since everything seems evenly balances. In most of the other songs the growls seem to be, not exactly in the major key, but fairly close to it. In this song, however, the growls are at least a half step lower and deeper; instead of the higher pitched vocals that they usually use that more closely resemble later Death-era vocals. Kirill Zmurciuk really shreds up the guitar here, complimenting Mike Grigorash's drumming very well.

On this album they also use their fair share of weird sound effects. One of the, ironically enough, being in the song "Bizarre" where after the Opeth like beginning they use swooshing sounds to transfer into some great vocal pieces. The growls have a nice crescendo to them, but then at the end, slowly fade into some ok bass and guitar work.

The production on this album is very clean and crisp. But, in this way, it is also very much like every other newer death metal act out there, too. I don't know if it would've sounded better with a less crisp feel, since it sounds so good already, but it would've been interesting to hear. Especially, if the growls were lower in this mix, if would've had a much eviler sound to it that could have made it better.

This band also did something very smart. They released this album for free download. Now people can get to hear their sound, get into it, and hopefully buy their next album. In this way I hope it reaches more people like me, who thoroughly enjoy their sound, very much. For their great debut, Neuromist gets 4 stars.

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.

The metal here is based in both hard core and tech death metal. I would also add thrash metal. It feels more thrash metal than death metal. There is not much all out brutal death metal here. Instead, the music is more refined and sophisticated. Meshuggah like, in fact. The thrash metal here is intertwined with some space rock melody lines too. In other words, the band has used their brain more than the routine thrash riffs you get from bands like this.

Intelligent music, yes. Great music, no. The quality is throughout good, but this album does not captivate me that much. There is a couple of very good songs like the closing track Rebuilt Babylon which at times leans towards Hawkwind. The rest of the album is inoffensive good with the Meshuggah like chugging. I will still recommend this album though as a good effort from a new band. Only time will tell if they return with a follow up. I sincerely hope they do.

3 stars