Trilateral Progression

With its rapid melodic and rhythmic shifts and dissonant harmonies, technical death metal can be alienating. Montréal’s Neuraxis wrote crushingly heavy riffs that regularly spun out into orbit, but they could be as fist-pumpingly catchy as At The Gates when they felt like it, too (try “Thought Adjuster”). The band’s secret weapon was vocalist Ian Campbell, who didn’t play an instrument (a rarity in tech-death) and was thus free to be a genuinely dramatic and charismatic frontman.