Since being introduced to Czech Republic’s grinders Negligent Collateral Collapse through their appearance on the 2001 Bizarre Leprous four-way split with Cock And Ball Torture, Filth and Downthroat, I’ve quickly become one of the group’s biggest fans and supporters.

The band’s early efforts; 28 Minutes Of Silence For All Innocent Victims, Spasm Of Extinction, Homologated Recycled 4D Hippies and the Feynman 7" and the material on the four way split are among my favourite gore-flavoured grind efforts and have remained in steady rotation on my stereo for more than 5 years. The group’s simple-yet-powerful musical approach is so ridiculously catchy it’s impossible not to get into.

Sick Atoms, the band’s latest full length offering, features 19 tracks of down tuned, lo-fi, simplistic grinding gore mixed with brutal death metal. Each track is named after, and lyrically revolves around, a specific narcotic, from "Marijuana" to "Alcohol" to "Ritalin". Each track follows the same basic formula of insanely super sick inhaled burp-gurgle vocals, electronic-sounding drumming and thick heavy down tuned riffing. For the most part the material is slow-paced and methodical but there are moments of all-out blasting strewn throughout.

I’m not entirely sure what happened, but somehow the band that, in my eyes, could do no wrong, seem to have come up short with this effort. Though the music on Sick Atoms is as simplistic as past efforts, it lacks the catchiness of past efforts and the tracks that stand out above the monotony are few and far between. For the most part the material just seems to lack that hook that transforms a simple track into something you find yourself playing over again and again and again.

A few tracks are fairly solid, namely "Sick Atoms", "Heroin", "Smoking" and "Steroids", but for the most part I find myself feeling really disinterested in the material. Perhaps my expectations were a little too high for this effort, considering the strength of the band’s past material, but I’m disappointed by Sick Atoms. That said I’m still going to be picking up Negligent Collateral Collapse’s two most recent split effort with Devourment, Corporal Raid and Screaming Afterbirth in the hopes that it’s much better than the full length. Sick Atoms doesn’t suck, but it’s definitely nowhere near as good as their last two full lengths or any of their demo or split material they’ve already released.

Written By: Teufel