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Necrowretch: Putrid death sorcery

27/02/13 || Ironpants

Unholy crap on a cracker!

The music market is overflowing with bands who try to keep it old school, and the majority of the publicum refer to the “Swedish Death Metal” phenomenon that was driven by Entombed and Dismember when they talk in terms of “old school”. But there is another spectrum of the old school sound. There is the American old school driven by first and mostly by Death and Autopsy to name a few, and in the European hemisphere bands like Kreator and Sodom contributed with their harsher side and the speed. Necrowretch is that other school, but even dirtier and darker at another level. We haven’t even left the first month of the year of 2013, and here is the first contender to be on everybody’s “Album of the Year list”, it is gonna be on my list for sure.

I’ve read up on this unholy triad, and it appears that they, or at least Vlad – the outspoken band leader, is true fans of Death’s “Scream bloody gore” and I guess that he has listened to it more than 3-4 times? So it may be, and you can actually hear the influences here and there, but this fucker is a juggernaut speeding on the road to success. My first thought when the album started was hands down, Merciless, the Swedish act who made an impact around 1990 with “The awakening”. It’s the same kind of relentless fast, evil, black death-thrashing going on through this whole production.

The sound on this album is deliberately dark and raw mixed but still kept in the range where you can hear what everybody’s doing. I don’t like the drum sound at all, it has the “empty cardboard box” sound, but the guitars and – Hello! – even the bass is right on spot. The vocals also has that old school reverb that contributes to the overall appearance. It’s quite obvious right from the first note, that modern thinking is slaughtered right upon the altar before even powering up the old Marshall stack here! Fans of triggered and pro-tooled stuff don’t even have to listen to this, it’s not even near your dimension. The only reason you need to listen to this, is for being schooled in the art of black hearted and honest metal. I don’t like the term “true metal”, but I am willing to make an exception to that rule here.

The vocals indeed, another thing that’s gonna be obvious right from the start when you listen to this, is that Vlad sounds like a deranged mass murderer on the prowl. And there´s a lot going on in the background when he´s not singing the lyrics, he screams, growls and grunts in the back like a madman. At first I didn’t really like the voice, but after listening to a couple of songs… end of discussion. Just crank up the volume and listen to the title song “Putrid death sorcery”. In this song they all go mental on their shit. The vocals is fucken awesome, Vlad sounds like a rabid wolf with one leg in a bear trap while filing away on guitar like a psycho. The bass is fucken pounded to dust like 30 seconds into the song. You feel like you’ve been run over by a truck when the song ends. Brilliant stuff!!

I’ve listened to this album for over a week now, and it has actually crashed my other daily responsibilities, it has taken over my playlist and also disturbed my other duties here in Global Domination and it really wasn’t what I had planned. If 2013 is gonna continue with this kind of overwhelming releases, I’m gonna be lying in a big mess of blood, sweat and feces on the floor, as an inspiring heap for Necrowretch to write songs about. This baby is a huge freshener to the, in my opinion, dull and boring old school nagging scene. You all have to pause now and listen to these French dominator’s. If they hold their heads up high and continue in this mindset, honoring their inspirational masters of Death with “Scream bloody gore” as a leading star in their hearts, I am actually afraid of their next release.

´Nuff said! You were so near a 10, but the crappy drum sound and a slightly amateurish reverb on the so ungodly voice slapped you with a -1. But still, horns up high. This is a fucken ass raping album that will be on my top 3 for quite a while. This is the strongest debut for a long time, and if they don’t make an impact on the scene, I will change my name to Lars and move to Iceland.

Information
Released: 2013
Label: Century Media Records
Website: www.necrowretch.net
Band
Vlad: vocals, guitars
Amphycion: bass
Mörkk: session drums

Tracklist
01. Ripping souls of sinners
02. Purifying torment
03. Goat-headed
04. Putrid death sorcery
05. Impious plague in catacombs
06. Spewed from hell
07. Defiler of sacrality
08. The antrophomancer
09. Soiled into a crypt
10. Necrollections
11. Repugnizer

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