Neckbreak Nation - Stroke Of The Devil’s Hour

‘Evolve to Six’ sounds like ‘Far Beyond Driven’ era Pantera, with other influences including Fear Factory, Arch Enemy and other purveyors of melodic groove, although they are labelled as a thrash band, I don’t find any comparison to the standard Teutonic or bay area sounds one little bit, it’s very 90’s and that usually means we can call it groove metal, whatever the hell that was. Tags aside, the music is very well played and the arrangements are tight as hell. The guitar tone is pretty nice, especially the instrumental ‘Interlude to Inception’ that evokes a big level of atmosphere and a tune like ‘Evolve to Six’ sounds like a monster juggernaut slipping and grooving its way through a fuel station as would indicate by my earlier comparison.

I find this release a tale of two halves, before the “interlude” there is much more melodic death metal angst and style delivered. A lot of this comes from the very competent guitar pieces, but also the vocal style. Whilst after “interlude”, there is much more 90’s groove metal involved, certainly at first glance, although I did try this into double figures, so I am happy with my statement previously.

‘Stroke of the Devil’s Hour’ hits your nerves in a pleasing way throughout. Even though I do find some aspects of the release forgettable, it is well played and rather tight and quality controlled in the production.