NECRONOCLAST

Necronoclast are a classic raw-sounding black metal band whose singer sounds like Popeye being sick. They also like to write long songs, with arrangements that sometimes briefly introduce elements from other genres like thick contestants on a lottery-based game show. I could leave the review at that, and you'd probably have a good idea whether you want to buy it or not. But that would be doing Necronoclast a bit of an injustice. You see, for some reason I'm yet to fathom, this is actually rather good. Not Nu-Burzum good of course, but certainly close. Sure, most of the songs stick to a formula of blast, shriek, blast, shriek, buzz, doom, (maybe) an acoustic guitar interlude, doom, buzz, blast, shriek, rinse, repeat, but like the mangy dog that leaves body-parts on the carpet and sick in your dinner, you can't help but loving it. Maybe it's the old-faithful sound to it all; the refusal to believe the clock kept ticking after 1991, that Satyricon became a laughable pop act, and that black metal became validated, embraced even, by the mainstream. Whatever, the fact is that, should you enjoy this particular brand of metal’s unwanted love-child, you could do a lot worse than get a copy of this album. But, with such a wide choice of extreme metal these days, you could also do a bit better.

LABEL:

FORMAT:

Moribund Records

Album

ASHES

Review by Steve Cowan

RUNNING TIME:

44:52

RELEASE DATE:

22nd Feb 2011

TRACK LISTING

1) Ghostways
2) Veil of Flies
3) Kajicnicke Saty
4) Serpents
5) Looking Glass
6) Ashes
7) Ravenous

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

UK

"...classic raw-sounding black metal..."