Necrochaos - Mortal Angels Descent

NECROCHAOS - Mortal Angels Descent (GODZ OV WAR - CD 2021)

I didn't have a chance to hear "Crawling Through Cadavers", which was Necrochaos' debut EP. But I remember some people were recommending me that CD. I did get "Mortal Angels Descent" though, and it is a first full album of this German one-man project. A quick check of the booklet - where everything is dark and blurry... Nahhh, I won't ruin my eyes in attempt to read anything... And let's play this shit! What you can expect from Necrochaos is a very brutal, sort of cavernous and murky death metal, which on one hand may take a bit of the Incantation stench into necrochaotic coffin, but on the other it also has a bit of the Finnish shadow over the atmosphere of the music. That overwhelming brutality and heaviness do speak for themselves, creating almost a claustrophobic feel, burying you in the pitch-black darkness. 

The album is not bad. But not brilliant also. I think that the main problem for me is that too much of the album just fades away after you stop listening to it. Necrochaos can blast like crazy with full speed on and crush your ears with some brutal riffs, but sometimes there’s nothing behind that monstrous and insanely heavy wall of death metal noise. Some parts of that album are simply mediocre and forgettable, especially if sometimes I feel like Necrochaos had very limited number of ideas for these songs. Things get more repetitive and they start to explore the same abyss of death metal over and over again with the same monotonous grunts to accompany them. With songs like “Mortal Angels Descent” I even think that there was no point in making it an over six minutes long piece, if there’s nothing really interesting behind it and that song just bores me. Unfortunately, there are few more fragments like that – just blurry, forgettable, unimpressive... 

Luckily, there are parts, which I did enjoy too, so I am not going to be too rough on Necrochaos. “Last Prayer” is definitely the best song here, I think, especially with that doomy part, which opens it. Hah, that’s what I always like to hear. Interestingly, also that instrumental monster titled “Hell Arisen” really caught my attention, there are some brilliant riffs in it, especially that Asphyx-esque melody near the end, which definitely is the best part of the whole album. All in all, "Mortal Angels Descent" is a decent album, I did play it a fair number of times and I cannot say that this time was wasted or something. But on a scale of so many insanely brilliant death metal albums, which hit us nowadays, this one feels too mediocre and much less inspiring. 

Standout track: "Last Prayer", "Hell Arisen" 

Verdict: 68/100