Montreal melodic-technical death metallers Neuraxis aren’t exactly prodigious. Fifteen years into their career, they’ve finally released their fourth studio effort, The Thin Line Between. Once again, new members round out the band’s lineup: latest vocalist Alex Leblanc and guitarist William Seghers are the band’s latest additions. Yet as The Thin Line Between unfolds, the innumerable member shifts prove worthwhile — the band blends Gothenburg’s cold, sterile guitar sound clashing with Carcass-esque guitar squeals and early Cannibal Corpse’s primordial vocal grunts to impressive effect.

Their most cohesive, aggressive and uncompromising release yet, The Thin Line Between’s 10 tracks are as thick and brusque as they are compelling and beguiling. Shifting between lumbering, weighty grooves and agitated double-time battering while maintaining a natural metre and flow, there is an inherent appeal to both music fans’ emotional sensibilities and bangers’ simplistic need for unadulterated chugging. Although the mix could showcase the drums a touch more to induce greater adrenaline-pumping fury, it is by no means lacking. This is Canada’s strongest death metal album of the year.