As the Wolf Moon rises above cities at night and desolate landscapes in 2025, Necromancer descends on the world with their long-awaited debut album with what they describe as Morbid Metal.
Necromaniac has been lurking in the undercurrents of the underground since 2011, releasing a couple of demos (2015 and 2024) and an EP (2018), and now a menacing full-length debut with occult rituals reflecting the album´s title. Fusing Death and Black Metal with Thrash Metal into “Morbid Metal” ejecting music that is as ominous as it is engaging. This London-based band encompasses musicians hailing from Sweden, Greece, Poland and Spain, thus forming an international gathering that invokes rituals of venom through ravaging metal music.
The music on the album is framed by two songs, ”Caput Draconis” (“Head of the Dragon”) and ”Cauda Draconis” (“Tail of the Dragon”), and in between there are eight songs steeped in the darker aspects of human existence: Sometimes when I listen to the ferocious music it evokes the sensation of nihilistic hedonism (yes, I know - a contradiction in terms). But here we are with dense riffs, thumping bass, growling vocals from the abyss, and magical virtuous drumsticks constantly fluttering a macabre dance over the drum-set.
”Caput Draconis” opens the proceeding with a distorted gong and unruly whisks on the snare drum before a bass kick-starts the song and distorted guitars drag prolonged riffs pushed forward by intense drumming with sticks flying and at the same time playing the style of marching war drums and hitting everything in its wake. Distant vocalizing growls immerse themselves in the midst as the song drags its feet molded in clay forward. Higher vocals begin swaying above the dense music with thundering drums while a captivating voice lurches in the middle of the music, before it fades away to give space for the descent into the occult necromantic and occult themes.
”Daemonomantia” takes the sinistrous cue from the opening song with fast beats rolling and blasting and a grunt from the vocalist in the middle of the unruly guitarwork. The song takes a turn for an even faster pace with sinister vocals over blasting rhythm with bursts from thunderous drums. The music is at Thrash Metal speed, with the nihilism of Black Metal and growls similar to Death Metal singing but far more ill-omened, spewing out the lyrics. There is a subtle shift where the guitars begin playing against each other as the drums force the song forward, aided by thumbing bass, lifting the menacing growls further. The subtle shifts in the high velocity of the song make it utterly tight and entertaining, and it is topped by a fuzzy solo above the riffs, just to be taken over by a fast tremolo guitar.
The musical scope that the band conveys through the orchestration of the instruments and layers makes this an eerie and entertaining listen. With relentless riffs and solos from the guitar and angry, menacing, and fast growls as if sung from the guts of a dark mold, you cannot help being captivated by the wicked activity that emanates from the music epitomized in the song ”Grave Mound Oath”. The guitars take hold and begin whirling around, and the drumsticks fly all over while the bass pushes forward, bringing the song back to the blasting opening half, diving into a tumultuous end.
The music is also highly cinematic, sometimes giving you the sense of being immersed in a painting by Zdzisław Beksiński or the translucent souls of the dead at the entrance to Dante´s Hell “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.”. The opening and the closing songs of the album are pretty cinematic, but equally - or maybe even more cinemascope - is the fourth song, ”Calling Forth The Shade” taking the cue from Dante with a distorted scream, balancing on agony, and a darkened hoarse laughter. Discordant guitars begin to play to the rhythm of war drums as the multiple screams intensify spewing blood cloths. Slowly the music finds a theme to support a gut-wrenching distortedly spoken word passage accompanied by dissonant guitars and massive rhythm section at the abysmal bottom. The music begins to pick up speed as the bass rises in the middle of the sonics with a melodic theme immersed in riffs and drumming. The vocal is as in all songs an instrument in itself when it begins to breathe growls and spit out direful shouts as a fuzzy high-pitched guitar begins to play a solo accompanied by frenzied laughter from all corners of the sonics. The music simmers down and a mighty organ rises as sounds of what seems like someone is digging with a spade end the song.
”Great Is The Thirst Of The Restless Dead” has pulsating opening gliding into a blasting rhythm and the song races through hurried riffs, solos, and breathless vocals. It seems like a metaphor where the music tries to outrun the vocals which pose as the restless dead and in the end devours all in its gut-wrenching growls. ”Teraphim (Skull Sorcery)” has a glissando “intro” that fuses hard riffs with tremolos and massive, intense and fast drumming. In the layers of the song are rumbling timpanis and exploding bass accompanied by distorted guitars that in the end is overtaken by high-pitched synth notes.
There is a kind of baleful intermezzo in ”Conjuration Of St. Cyprian” with chilly synth-based wind and yet another haunting eerie spoken word passage before the swirling riffs yank the listener into ”Swedenborg’s Skull” that serves as a thunderous bridge with the timbre of a church bell in the middle and a fierce guitar solo to “Necromancess / Cauda Draconis” that closes the album with the thundering sound of timpanis and other drums. The album´s proceeding proceeds towards its finale in a crescendo of guitars and drums with growling throaty vocals as a distorted gong ends the album while a static guitar is fading away down the abyss.
