Review Summary: Tasty grooves
Formed in the mid-2000's, Nociceptor is a progressive metal band from Dallas, Texas and have already gained a cult following in the metal community. From their technically impressive guitar work and complex drumming, it's no wonder the fame the young group has acquired. The music is hard-hitting, groove oriented, and crushingly brutal. Polyrhythms galore, the down-tuned riffs twist and cycle around each other over the hypnotically pounding drum beats to create a unique heavy metal listening experience.
Sound familiar?
It should. Because while being a fairly enjoyable and well made record, the music in Among Insects frequently feels like a carbon copy of, you guessed it, progressive metal titans Meshuggah. While this certainly isn't the first band to heavily "borrow" their brilliantly unique style, most of the guitar riffs could probably be interchanged with many found in Meshuggah's discography, and only the closest of listeners would be able to tell the minute differences. What doesn't help is that the rhythms rarely stray from the mid-tempo range, and this coupled with the nature of the guitar riffs makes it sound eerily similar to Meshuggah’s 2004 mega-hit Nothing. The similarities are simply too many to ignore.
The largest distinction made here is the vocals. For the most part, they are aggressively shouted or growled, making use of clean vocals in only a few of the tracks: album highlights, "Botfly" and "Angus McGillicutty." Moments in songs like these shine light through the cracks in what could have been a truly great debut album from a band very much in touch with their inspirations.
Among Insects tries hard, and occasionally shows the originality and creativity the band is capable of. One can't help but think with just a little bit more risk, this could have been a truly unique and memorable debut. Hopefully this will only make the band evolve into exploring more original territory and claim the attention they hopefully deserve by pushing the creativity and lessening the reliance on “inspiration.”
