Their gruesome and gory lyrics might be the stuff of nightmares, but youthful, rising Danish stars NECKBREAKKER are living the dream and giving death metal a mighty wallop of energy, aggression and – surprisingly – fun…
Denmark may have given the world such stalwarts of heavy music as Metallica’s Lars Ulrich and King Diamond’s legendary occult rockers Mercyful Fate, but in terms of death metal it’s long been overshadowed by the noise coming across the Øresund strait from its Swedish neighbours.
When hotly-tipped newcomers NECKBREAKKER were trying to get going, at a point when they were all still teenagers, it was a struggle even to get a full complement of musicians involved in their morbid racket.
“When we started, it was very hard to find people our age that wanted to play this very niche music, especially in the area that we were,” recalls guitarist Joakim Høholt Kaspersen. “As soon as we found five people, we were very committed to hanging on to the line-up!”
On their hot-off-the-press debut Within The Viscera, the Silkeborg-based quintet deliver nine songs that grind together the genre’s classic sound with the youthful attack of a bunch of lads whose ages range from 18 to 22. The ominous dynamics of Purgatory Rites and churning assault of Horizon Of Spikes tip the hat to Scandinavian forefathers like Entombed and Dismember, but tunes like the slamming Absorption and Unholy Inquisition also look across the pond for inspiration.
“We’ve gotten a lot of influence from the American scene right now, with that blend of death metal and hardcore, so that’s bleeding into the sound as well,” reckons Joakim. “We wanted to make an old-school death metal album that hits in the same way as a modern hardcore record.”
Frontman Christoffer Bach Kofoed’s punchy contributions are crucial to this blend, his aggro vocal bootprint a perfect fit for song titles like Face-Splitting Madness, Shackled To A Corpse and the delightful Putrefied Body Fluid.
“The lyrics are classic gore, very classic death metal,” says Joakim with a smile. “They’re not sophisticated, we’re very aware of that – we just think it’s fun. Maybe we’ll see on the next record if we’ll dive into any more serious topics!”
In conversation, Joakim continually describes the experiences NECKBREAKKER have enjoyed – signing to eminent metal label Nuclear Blast, playing big Euro fests including a triumphant set at their own country’s Copenhell – as “a fucking dream”. Pressed for future ambitions, he modestly speaks of getting their music out to more people, before adding, “Then hopefully we’ll become the biggest death metal band in the world!”
This might be said with a self-deprecating chuckle, but their already-swift ascent leaves the future thrillingly open.
“We’re always pulling influences from all sorts of places, so it’ll be very exciting to see what we’ll sound like in a couple of years,” ponders Joakim. For now, that excitement should be shared by everyone who finds themselves Within The Viscera. Because NECKBREAKKER are bloody great.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2024 issue of the magazine.
NECKBREAKKER’s album Within The Viscera is out now via Nuclear Blast.
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