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Considering the pedigree of all the members involved, one of which is Anatomy of I's guitarist/vocalist Michael Dorian on drums, it's unsurprising that Nerve Saw would opt for that classic Swedish Death Metal sound on their debut album. What is surprising is that they've successfully combined that with a significant punk influence without fucking it up. Instead, we get filthy, downtuned riffing caked in that infamous Sunlight Studio guitar tone mixed with booze-soaked, testosterone fueled punk energy that makes them sound a lot like a punkier Impaled Nazarene. Songs like "The Red Line" and "Last Verse for the Buried" would give Carnage and Dismember a run for their money in their heyday, and they fit in perfectly well with the more blatantly punk-inspired numbers like opener "A Fool" and "The Eye of the Golem", and it's all as uncompromising and defiantly anti-commercial as it is brutal and entertaining.

It's not every day I come across a Death Metal band willing to experiment like this, and it's even more uncommon for me to come across an act that pulls it off, but Nerve Saw have done just that and made one of the more original Death Metal albums I've heard in a while. It might not be for everyone, but they couldn't give a shit if you don't like it, and neither do I, because it doesn't get much better than this.