Impressed by their strong performance and songs, in which Pantera is definitely the biggest influence, I immediately bought their CD. Unfortunately only True Soul Dead Body was available which was released in 2000 and as I expected it was nothing compared to what I saw live, so I was very happy when Heavyweight – 3^rd Round was sent to me. This album brings the heavy, straight forward metal, which I liked so much live, many times better. The music is easy to get into, it’s relatively simple metal but very effective because it gives you that rough, sturdy feeling. I would call that the Pantera style, but Neck Sprain lacks in great solos.

 

Especially in ‘Other Side’ the comparison with Pantera is very evident because of the typical southern rock riff. Neck Sprain doesn’t deny that Pantera is a huge influence for them; the last song, ‘Dime’, is a semi-acoustic homage for the tragically died shredding guitar master.

 

The only thing what really bugs me are the vocals; although the singer tries to use his voice in different ways, screaming, half screaming and clean, he keeps sounding too monotone. The screaming parts aren’t low and aggressive enough and the clean vocal lines are unchallenging; the whole thing is just too one-sided. In the song ‘Steam Engine’ I get a bit bored by the repetition of the title words by the singer, but the nicely build up tension towards a hard pounding riff makes up for that. Although the way in which the tension builds up isn’t too original, it simply kicks ass and gets your head banging and that’s what it’s all about, right?  

 

Neck Sprain doesn’t bring us something we haven’t heard yet, but that doesn’t take away that this CD brings a high risk of spraining your neck. Especially their live performance of the hard pounding, sturdy metal is very awesome; if you ever get the chance to see this guys live, be sure to be there!