If we didn't know better, it'd be all too easy to convince us that Florida's NEUROTIC NOVEMBER were grown in a lab for the explicit purpose of pissing off the Internet. Because not only do they play Deathcore, they also sprinkle it with rap and their very existence seems to consist entirely of things that aren't popular online. They sport ear-gauges, are overly fond of that weird squatting crab dance, and in August they appeared at INSANE CLOWN POSSE's Gathering Of The Juggalos festival. Just a cursory glance at the World Wide Web returns a wealth of negative publicity and it looks like they are almost universally hated.

That being said, they're not deserving of all the hate and you have to give them credit for trying to put a fresh spin on extreme music. They also seem to have matured a bit since the juvenile bragging of their debut album, freely admitting in the very first lyric that they "came into this game a little rough" and are trying to improve. Plus one of the songs deals with the path to success not by emphasising girls and bling, but the sheer amount of work they've had to put in. "On The Come Up" is not a flashy depiction of life on the road, but a proud statement of how much they had to sacrifice to get where they are.

The trouble is that despite this, NEUROTIC NOVEMBER still haven't changed their fortunes because "Fighting Words" simply isn't very good. The components are all there but their fusion of Rap with Djentish Deathcore isn't especially convincing. There's a hefty amount of chug and frontman Dee Dee can growl like a beast and is a pretty good rapper too, but all the separate parts never come together in a satisfying way. There's a serious lack of any memorable hooks, not a single chorus worth writing about and the songs lack the replay factor.

Granted, there are a few decent moments to be had in "The Rockstar" and "Wasabi Anguish: Part 2." The former is a straight-up Deathcore rager that proves they can smash it when their focus is narrowed a little, while the latter is the closest they get to a genuine success with their trademark sound, but these are rare moments in an otherwise frustrating listen. NEUROTIC NOVEMBER aren't half as terrible as certain websites will have you believe, but their self-proclaimed brand of Hood Metal has yet to produce a classic. They're a long way from providing a successful amalgamation of their two favourite genres, here's hoping the next record improves on this.