Anthem - Goecja / Necronomicon

ANTHEM - Goecja / Necronomicon (Self released demo 2007/EP 2009)

Anthem is one of those great, but little known death metal bands from Poland, which I really wanna recommend. I doubt if many from abroad have heard of them, but damn – their music fuckin slays. “Phosphorus” album from 2014 is such a killer. Now Anthem is about to release their second CD “Praeposterum”, so I’m really looking forward to hear it. In the meantime I would like to introduce you to Anthem’s very early and quite hard to find recordings: “Goecja” demo 2007 and “Necronomicon” EP 2009. I managed to grab copies of both and damn, the music on these releases is simply great. I am quite surprised to hear such a great quality crushing death metal and it’s a shame that none of these demos was better promoted, because they deserved to be! Maybe one day someone will think about re-releasing them on CD, that would be a great idea. Both demos were “pressed” on CDr with simple, printed covers and slimcase, so I would also wish to see these recordings better released. Hope it will bring them an idea to do so!

“Goecja” from 2007 contains four killer tracks of fast and brutal death metal. From the very first second, this music brings an utter destruction and slays with no mercy. Great fast tempo, very dense riffage and killer production. It all sounds like a massive cannonade, heavy attack, which can turn whole city into ruin. And I love it. It’s so powerful, so fuckin intense. It’s not constant blasting, there are some slower or mid paces parts as well, so the music is quite varied. And the riffs, with vocals and whole performance is top notch, with songs like “Ol Sonuf” and “Chirographum” being damn ferocious crushers. Demo wasn’t even recorded in professional studio, but the final effect is better than you would expect and I dare to say that this music should impress every death metal maniac.

Then “Necronomicon” EP, with two tracks. This time the band went to the studio – but honestly, I’ve never heard of Bloodblack Studio before. But the sound has even improved. Anyway, these two songs continue the fierce and destructive death metal style from “Goecja”. Anthem doesn’t waste time for useless crap and both tracks are filled with great dose of death goodness. It’s super fast, intense and brutal. The vocals are vicious and you won’t even notice that the band had all lyrics written in Polish. And quality is superb.

If you like Azarath, you will like Anthem also. If you like Vital Remains, then Anthem will be for you also (although they don’t have that epic side of Vital Remains music). You can even compare it to Deicide, but Deicide is utter shit since many years, so I don’t care for this band. Anthem is better. And both “Goecja” and “Necronomicon” are super awesome releases. Shame (for you haha) that they’re not available anywhere, but I do hope it will change. And now I’m ready for “Praeposterum”. Nie ma boga.

Final rate: 80/100