(Texas-based Neural Glitch released an album last year that ranked high on the year-end list of our old friend Professor D. Grover the XIIIth, and just last month they released another full-length that has gotten Grover even more excited. He explains why in this review, which includes info and insights drawn from a dialogue with the project’s mastermind.)

Greetings and salutations, friends. With the sheer quantity of music that I’ve listened to in my many years on this earth, it’s become increasingly rare that I find something that really catches me by surprise these days. And yet, as you’ve no doubt surmised, it does still happen on occasion, as was the case with Neural Glitch’s debut from last year, Convinced To Obey. The absurd mix of technical death metal and sample-heavy glitch electronica reminded me in various parts of a number of different bands while still presenting something really unlike anything I’d heard before, and I was enamored enough that the album landed in the top ten on my year-end list here, standing as the only release from a band with which I was previously unfamiliar in that top ten.

You can imagine my surprise, then, when I found out that after only a year and a couple months, the band had released another album. The turnaround is especially impressive given the densely layered nature of the music here. HypNOTic ImpAIrment has actually surprised me once again, representing an impressive step forward in songwriting and general production while retaining the gloriously anarchic spirit of its predecessor. As much as I enjoyed Convinced To Obey, this is undoubtedly a better album. Continue reading »