Neckbreakker released one of 2024's most exciting metal debut albums. Now they're about to live their biggest dream
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When Joakim Høholt Kaspersen co-founded Neckbreakker in 2020, aged 15, one of the Danes' dreams was to play Copenhell, his home country's premier metal festival. 'As a Danish band, that is the thing that you strive towards,' the guitarist says of the 35,000-capacity weekender. He was just 19 when that dream came true.
'We'd all been going to that festival for years before we played it,' he continues with a smile. 'It's a place where the entire metal scene unites every year, so, when we played, it was like playing a festival where half of the crowd are your friends.'
Performing at one of Scandinavia's biggest festivals is just the first item on the list of colossal things these death metal upstarts have accomplished. Now aged between 18 and 22, they've already signed to Nuclear Blast and released propulsive debut album Within The Viscera in December 2024. In a 'full-circle' moment, they've also been announced as the opening act on Slayer's mega-gigs when they return to the UK in July, a fitting position considering the thrash legends were Joakim's gateway into extreme metal.
'I started listening to thrash and learned a bunch of Slayer [on guitar],' Joakim recalls. 'When I found Death's Scream Bloody Gore and to me that sounded just like Slayer but more aggressive. Before I knew it, I was listening to death metal and going to pretty much every metal show I could. I got exposed to a lot of different subgenres.'
You can hear those influences on Within The Viscera, a tooth-gnashing, headbanging mix of the nastiest bits in death metal and beyond. Deathcore breakdowns and scathing lead guitar lines frequently join its melee of chainsaw-like riffs, while pummelling beatdowns are never too far away.
'I've gotten very, very much into hardcore,' Joakim says. 'But a lot of the drumming on the record was inspired by our old drummer Anton's [Bregendorf] love of rock music. His favourite drummer of all time is Dave Grohl.'
Joakim formed Neckbreakker under the name 'Nakkeknaekker' in February 2020, . He admits it was hard work finding other members. 'I'm from Aarhus, which is a pretty big city,' Joakim says. 'But the other guys in the band are from smaller cities in Jutland. There just isn't a metal scene outside of the bigger cities in Denmark.'
Making the search even harder was how young he was. 'When I went to shows and stuff, there weren't a lot of people my age,' he says with a shrug. 'Even the people that were, they probably didn't play any instruments themselves.'
Nonetheless, Joakim did eventually gather a lineup…three weeks before COVID-19 forced shows to be cancelled for more than a year. Rather than impatiently split up, the band practiced incessantly for 18 months, holed away in their rooms perfecting their instruments. All that time writing and playing made their gigs as sharp as machetes once restrictions were lifted.
'I think it helped us because we didn't think about having to book shit or anything like that,' Joakim reflects. 'We just wrote songs and played them all day. I remember, we would have rehearsals that were 12 hours long, but we would just be playing the same four songs again and again.'
Nakkeknaekker burst out of lockdown like a rabid pitbull, playing all over Denmark in 2022 before going international the following year. They dominated the New Blood stage at Bloodstock Open Air, where the crowd relentlessly moshed to their well-honed savagery. 'That was our second or third show out of Denmark and it was just incredible,' Joakim says.
But while they'd enjoyed some serious momentum, the band soon realised they'd need to change things if they wanted to continue reaching international audiences. Their expansion abroad showed the band that the name Nakkeknaekker was no longer fit for purpose, with the members noticing how many people overseas struggled to pronounce it. So, they translated the moniker into English and added an extra K. The rebrand was unveiled in late 2024, when it was announced that the five-piece were the newest additions to Nuclear Blast's roster.
'There's no other label that I'd rather be on as a metal band, to be honest,' he enthuses. 'They're just amazing people. The whole team seems to really, really understand metal and understand music. You can throw any reference to anything at them and they'll know exactly what you're talking about.'
Since then, exciting news from the band seems to come as frequently as the tide. Their set on the Sunday of Download will be followed one day later by a gig supporting deathcore mavens Fit For An Autopsy. Then, of course, will come the Slayer shows, taking place at Cardiff's 35,000-capacity Blackweir Fields and London's 45,000-capacity Finsbury Park – presenting possibly the biggest crowds the band have played to yet.
'Words can't describe how excited me and the guys are to get the chance to support Slayer,' he enthuses. 'It still doesn't feel quite real, but we are just honoured and grateful to be a part of such an insane lineup.'
The guitarist struggles to think when asked what his band have left to achieve – granted, who could come up with an answer better than 'playing my dream festival as a teenager' or 'supporting fucking Slayer'? For now, he wants to stick the course, playing more places and climbing further up posters.
'We still want to tour the US and Australia at some point,' he says. 'We just hope everything is going to get bigger and bigger.'
Within The Viscera is out now via Nuclear Blast. Neckbreakker will play Download on June 15 and London with Fit For An Autopsy on June 16. They'll support Slayer in the UK in July
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