Necrot - The Labyrinth

NECROT - The Labyrinth (TANKCRIMES - CD 2016)

I have to say that the current death metal scene in the USofA is truly exciting and maybe even the best since the great times of late 80’s / early 90’s. The number of killer acts nowadays is so great that it’s almost impossible to keep up with everything. Necrot is one of my favourite acts out there now, with an impressive catalogue filled with brilliant demos and two fantastic albums. But damn, how can this band be useless if it gathers people from other killer acts, such as Mortuous and Vastum? It just has to be good, right?  

What I like about Necrot is that they went through a great path of three demos before unleashing their first full length “Blood Offerings”. It has somehow become a rarity nowadays for bands to even do one demo sometimes, as they rush so much to do the debut album. Which is something I cannot understand, it’s almost against the old traditions of demo recording. Three demo background is almost like a perversion! Anyway, here is a killer compilation titled “The Labyrinth”, which gathers all these Necrot demos on one CD and LP. And it is a fantastic set, believe me. It's even better when you realize that none of these songs ended up on the first album – quite unusual thing, to be honest, but it can tell you how productive Necrot has been. 

With these three demos, you could tell that their death metal was solid and impressive right from the beginning. And more so, it was just getting better and better with every new recording, bringing more lethal riffs and developing songwriting and production. One thing is the same every time – the heaviness and massive, crushing character of their riffage is always there. Sure, these two songs from the first self-titled demo ("Consume Control" and "Contagious Pain") may feel a bit forgettable at the first hearing, but I think that they are great anyway, especially when you realize they came from a completely new band. "Into The Labyrinth” demo is a nice step forward for Necrot though and contains three really massive songs. They have everything – slower, gloomy parts, as well as fast, intense fragments. There's even a small dose of melody and I can tell that the music is a bit memorable, almost in the Finnish death metal classic way, alike to Abhorrence. But there are influences also from other legendary bands, from old Carcass to Bolt Thrower... Oh, you will scream in spasms when you hear that demo, believe me! 

And there’s the third demo "The Abyss" yet to come! It feels a bit more straight forward, and especially when you compare it to the first demo you can realize how quickly Necrot was developing and just getting better and more interesting. It's all your filthy, obscure death metal. I suppose that stylistically songs from the third demo are closer to the classic US death metal, and they are sweet as human meat, yeah! I listen to them with great pleasure and for sure I can see that the background Necrot did before the first album was more than just solid. Full support. 

Verdict: 80/100

Father Befouled - Rotting Godless Throne

FATHER BEFOULED - Rotting Godless Throne (NUCLEAR WAR NOW! - 7"EP 2010)

Among all the American death metal bands that came into being in the past two decades, Father Befouled certainly holds a high place in my personal ranking, especially with such records as "Morbid Destitution of Covenant". Actually, I like some other projects, which involve Father Befouled members, too, like Encoffination, but Father Befouled is the best for sure. It's one of those bands, whose all recordings I try to get on vinyl, if it's only possible of course. So, this is why "Rotting Godless Throne" 7"EP appeared in my collection. It is a highly interesting single, I have to say, not only from its strictly musical aspect, but also for its history - which has been explained in details in the liner notes, mentioning also Antichristus, who originally was supposed to record drums, but took his own life just days before the band entered the studio. 

Well, speaking of the music, Father Befouled is one of the heaviest death metal bands you will ever hear. The crushing wall of dense, poisonous sound is just overwhelming, making your ears bleed and bones break in insane pain. I just love that raw, yet intense and powerful production, which "Rotting Godless Throne" has. It perfectly fits that morbid and sacrilegious aura of the music, I say. It is obviously quite similar in some aspects to Encoffination works, but Father Befouled is better, as their music is more varied, with more interesting aspects thrown within every song - massive, doomy parts and fast, brutal pieces can live in great symbiose, in the great Incantation style. And unlike Encoffination, which is only slow and slower, this music is not monotonous at all. There are three tracks on this EP, one of them is "Weeping in Heaven" (originally by Profanatica), for which they asked Paul Ledney to play drums. Fuckin sick song they did! But the title track from side A is the best one in my opinion! It’s a killer 7”EP, you need to have in your collection if you love that format. 

Verdict: 85/100

Persecutory - Perversion Feeds Our Force

PERSECUTORY - Perversion Feeds Our Force (GODZ OV WAR - CD 2022)

Some time ago, "Summoning the Lawless Legions" from Persecutory brutally broke all my bones and for days it did not let me forget about that excellent, powerful music. I still try to put myself together after this excellent album. Meanwhile Godz Ov War decided to re-release Persecutory's debut EP "Perversion Feeds Our Force". Not a bad idea, because I never had a chance to hear this material, I don't think it would be that easy to grab a copy of original CD pressing, so a re-release surely sounds like a good idea. 

And I will make this review short, because this EP with its sixteen minutes of music just goes quickly that there's not even much to tell. All four tracks here are more in the pure barbaric black metal vein (check all these possessed screams on this album), when compared to death / black metal from the latest album. Everything what's on this EP can be called "fast and furious". Tempo on these songs hardly ever slows down, it's just insanely intense, aggressive, violent music, where's no room for melodies or anything like that. It's just a black metal wall of riffage. Production is much rawer when compared to more brutal and powerful production of the last album. But do not be worried; it's still pretty solid sounding piece of underground black metal. Not as killer and impressive as the latest album - oh no, not even close. But I think it's not bad at all and if you're looking for some of these more "exotic" black metal bands, Persecutory will be up your street. 

Verdict: 70/100

Necroven - Worship of Humiliation

NECROVEN - Worship of Humiliation (MEMENTO MORI - CD 2012)

I often like to write about bands, which I feel have been slightly underrated or forgotten and whose albums I am big fan of. Here is such band, definitely one of the best Spanish death metal projects of recent years in my opinion – Necroven. It was started back in 2011 as a one-man project – which is something quite unordinary on the death metal scene. After two demos JR recorded his first album “Worship of Humiliation” and it is a splendid stuff. If you think that often such one-man projects are uninteresting and the music is poor, you will change your mind after hearing this album. 

It really is a killer effort, I think. Necroven is soaked in the old school gore, JR takes full grasps of influence from the Finnish and Swedish death metal, spices it up with a bit of American brutality and doom / death morbidity... and the result is fuckin excellent, top stuff for my musical taste. The best thing for me personally is how much sometimes this album reminds me the old recordings from Amorphis – which to this day are the best Finnish death metal ever recorded (I mean their debut LP). Necroven has similar obscure and dark sound, same brutality combined with some melodic parts... doomy pieces can be mixed up with more ferocious and brutal stuff and this is exactly why songs such as “Tormented till Death” and the title track sound so amazing. It's like Incantation was jamming with Amorphis and invited also guys from Drawn and Quartered, Funebre and even Bolt Thrower. Can it sound any better? Nope. The riffs are great, the sound too – the music has that proper powerful brutal kick, which is obligatory for death metal. And at the same time Necroven has no problem with creating dark, morbid atmosphere – so, it’s all there. Each song has some hooky parts, riffs which will stick in your head and tear your flesh apart. Each is splendid. 

Oh, one more thing. On the album you will find also a cover of Unconsecrated “Exhumating Profaned Flesh”. For me it is quite odd choice, as this is relatively young and little known band, not one of those classic 80’s or 90’s bands. But the song is great, the cover is well played too, so no complain... it is just weird that someone decided to cover such younger, small and little-known band instead of the classic shit. David Garcia had to proud when he heard it. 

I have no idea what else can I write. “Worship of Humiliation” is a great album, yes. It deserves to be on vinyl. More so, I am huge fan of Necroven second album and the 7”EP as well. It's a shame that the band feels to be so forgotten and underrated. And it is a shame that there’s been silence in Necroven for something like six years now, I have no idea even if the project is still active or not. I do hope that JR will come back with another dose of such killer death metal! 

Verdict: 85/100

Angrrsth / Czort - W czeluść

ANGRRSTH / CZORT - W czeluść (Split CD GODZ OV WAR - CD 2022)

When I first saw the announcement of Angrrsth / Czort "W czeluść" split CD I immediately thought that this has to be a highly anticipated album. And one of the better releases coming this year from Godz ov War (but let's not forget about Under the Sign of Garazel Productions, who co-released this CD). It's not an exaggeration, because both bands have left incredibly good impression with releases such as "Donikąd" and "Apostoł". These albums are even more worthy for me, because I am not a great fan of most of the current black metal coming from Poland - too many bands simply annoy me to give a fuck about them. But both Angrrsth and Czort are great, so this is why I was so eager to hear this split. And well, I am not disappointed at all. 

Angrrsth comes first, with two songs "Pętla" and "Przerwana" (these titles will again give a headache to all non-Polish listeners haha but hey, we also had to suffer when reading titles such as "Niðr ok Norðr liggr Helvegr" or "Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz..." haha). And I cannot decide, which of these two songs I like more, they are both so damn good. Everything about Angrrsth music is brilliant, I think, from great riffs (the second minute of "Pętla" is just killerrrrr!!!), nice combination of fast black metal and more melodic, sometimes almost bombastic black metal. Arrangements on these two songs are fantastic, Angrrsth will not allow you to feel bored, so much interesting stuff is going on here... And I don't mean just the tempo changes, it's not that easy. Great and diverse vocal lines (including a bit of clean male vocal lines) is one of the most noteworthy things here, I really like that aspect of Angrrsth music. But there more nice details thrown within these songs, which makes them so fascinating and capturing. Also, it's really cool how catchy and memorable these songs, despite the obvious viciousness and aggression, which characterizes this style of music. Finally, the production on this material is great. Obviously, long gone are times, when most of the black metal releases sounded like recorded in the deep arse-hole of the devil himself, nowadays you could get a great sound easily and without much money involved. But the production of this Angrrsth material is brutal and fierce, perfectly suiting the music. 

When compared to Angrrsth’s “modern” black metal, Czort music sounds much more traditional, both in its approach and sound. In my opinion, it's not as good too, but that doesn't mean that I don't like it. I do, actually. Czort is a solid and worthy band, whose previous releases were all good, and it is not different with these two new tracks. I say that their music has more classic black metal style, but do not think that it is a primeval Darkthrone-ish stuff or something like that. You will notice though that Czort combines melodies with that harsh, obscure black metal and sometimes it sounds like a combination of Scandinavian and Greek styles, with a bit of old Polish stuff too. It's aggressive, very dark and malicious in its atmosphere and just damn well played. Again, I can only speak in positive words about this music. Some of you may not be sure if split between Czort and Angrrsth is the best combination, but I think it is better than listening to two completely similar bands. Besides, both bands delivered great songs, what else do we need? 

Verdict: 85/100

Eradicate - Demise Towards the Dasein

ERADICATE - Demise Towards the Dasein (GODZ OV WAR - CD 2022)

Turkey is no longer a blank white spot on the map of European death metal. We have Engulfed, Persecutory, Diabolizer or Burial Invocation there and they are all fantastic bands. This year, another monster has arisen from the Turkish catacombs and the name of this beast is Eradicate. "Demise Towards the Dasein" is only recording from them so far, a three-song demo (let's skip the fourth track, which is some sort of an intro). It all lasts for twelve minutes only... but it is enough to catch my attention and write the name down in the notebook for future releases. 

Definitely, Eradicate will catch your eye from the first glance with the great, classic horror artwork and that cool logo. They scream old school death metal. Loud and clear. I can only confirm your suspicion that the music is filthy, raw and damn ugly. Eradicate uses rather simplistic means, which underline that old school feel, and the musical influences can come from Autopsy, Cianide, Master, Nunslaughter and other such music zombies. Their riffs are crude, neanderthal and savage, with a bit of faster stuff here and there (but not in the modern blasting way) and doomy, chunky stuff is present even more often. I won't say that Eradicate came up with the most distinguish and attractive material of the year... because it is only a demo and it sounds like a demo. But damn, I like that death metal style, I like its primitive and raw style. I bet we will hear more from Eradicate in the future, but until then, just enjoy this piece of filth called "Demise Towards the Dasein". Very cool CD. 

Verdict: 75/100