Friday, December 2, 2011

Necros Christos - Doom of the Occult (2011)

Full Length, Sepulchral Voice Records
March 11th, 2011


Genre: Death Metal
Region: Germany

What a record. Necros Christos can be counted as masters of death without question. This is their second full release and before their 2007 album "Triune Impurity Rites" they were pumping out splits and demos at a breakneck pace, refining their sound and pushing themselves to this point.

Doom of the Occult is a 22 track behemoth of doom smothered death with a slight middle eastern flare sprinkled throughout, both in terms of riffing and solos as well as instrumental, ambient and folky interludes (labeled as Gates or Temples). I was concerned these instrumentals would break up the punishing death metal too much but to their credit add a lot too the record overall.

Interludes are composed of a range of elements. Some are short ominous organ-like keyboard sections, others are dark choirs, and my favorites are flute, tar, acoustic guitar, and setar melodies that produce an antiquated and medieval atmosphere — all of which flow well into the delicious main course. These tracks are expertly crafted slabs of rolling death metal that follow a simple formula: sick mid-paced tremolo riffs punctuated by pinched harmonics, crunchy powerchords and plodding drums, followed a truly wicked solo; while not groundbreaking it's truly satisfying. The vocals are deep and monstrous while still decipherable with lyrical themes that range from the wrath of ancient gods and kings, the afterlife, disease, necromancy, towering temples and bleak abyssal mysteries; all that apocalyptic shit (in various languages). It all amalgamates to form an imposing ediface of archaic death you don't want to pass up.

Surely high on any death metal fan's list this year. You can pick it up the cd at Hells Headbangers or the vinyl at 20 Buck Spin (which has been given great treatment). Highly recommended for fans of Diocletian, Cruciamentum, Sonne Adam and Sanguis Imperem.

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