Endezzma - Erotik Nekrosis

ENDEZZMA - Erotik Nekrosis (AGONIA Records - LP 2012)

I must admit that this album was an obligatory purchase for me as soon as Agonia Records released it on vinyl. And that’s because of two reasons: I enjoyed Endezzma’s debut EP quite much, but more so, there’s Trondr Nefas from Urgehal, Beastcraft, etc in the line up. And well, I really dig his music a lot. Sadly “Erotik Nekrosis” turned out to be one of his last recordings, before he died in 2012, so it quickly became quite special album. And yeah, I definitely like the music a lot. This is quite typical Norwegian black metal record, it has that Norwegian feeling, which is so characteristic and unique for this country, but this is probably why I love it so much, as in my opinion there’s nothing better than the classic Norwegian black metal if done with high quality.

And “Erotik Nekrosis” for me is a killer album, which delivers such a fantastic listening experience that I am quite surprised that it passed rather unnoticed by the scene. At least I hardly ever hear people mentioning it. And the greatest thing about “Erotik Nekrosis” is the diversity of this album and I really mean it. There’s a lot going on in every song, Endezzma can bring many different type of riffs, styles or moods, but all played in the harsh, black metal way of corpse! So, it’s nothing like monothematic, primitive music, but very well composed record, with many aggressive parts, but also many catchy and memorable, melodic pieces. Obviously you’ll be able to pick up several fragments here, which are deeply rooted in the classic Norwegian harsh black metal and bands like Darkthrone and obviously also Urgehal, but I guess they’re rather closer to such “Ravishing Grimness” than “Transilvanian Hunger”. But at the same time there are some pieces, which personally I can compare to such Taake and some other, which I think can be influenced by some more recent Satyricon albums. And you know, Endezzma do not reinvent the wheel, but somehow the effect they achieved on “Erotik Nekrosis” is simply awesome.

The songwriting here is more than decent, I think, with many truly splendid riffs and very good arrangements. I was at first quite surprised to hear some additional instruments like keyboards appearing in few places, as I surely did not expect them, but damn, they do give a nice touch to the whole music, especially when those melodic bits are combined with cold atmosphere and harsh, raspy vocals of Morten. I must say I do like how Endezzma make this smooth transitions between different paces and moods, and how they incorporate these atmospheric pieces into the whole album, like in “Enigma of the Sullen” or “Against Them All”, which have some Hammond like organs and the latter has even a slight cosmic keyboards in some parts, which again is quite surprising. I’m glad also to have song like “Hollow” here, as its melancholic, slow playing completes the album in great way and makes it even more varied, actually reminding me Trondr Nefas’ other band, Angst Skvadron a bit.

And then in case you prefer more straight forward and aggressive black metal, you can enjoy such tracks like “Junkyard Oblivion” (for which a video was recorded, by the way) or “Swansong for a Giant”, but I would mention “Soulcleansing” especially, as it’s a killer track, with some piano that accompany the harsh riffage and thus it reminds me some old Obtained Enslavement, fantastic stuff, really. So, I cannot really anything bad about this album. “Erotik Nekrosis” is surely among my favourite Norwegian albums of the recent years and damn… I am really curious what will they bring next, now when Nefas is gone and new line up has been presented. Recommended.

Standout tracks: “Enigma of the Sullen”, “Junkyard Oblivion”, “Hollow”, “Soulcleansing”

Final rate: 80/100