Necrovation - Necrovation

Like every year, Sweden offers up some awesome death metal. This year, albums from Paganizer, Malfeitor, Intestinal and even Unleashed to name a few have been solid or great, but the latest effort from Necrovation is one of those death metal albums that takes it beyond what you might be use to hearing from the Swedish death metal scene.

You wont find the slamming gallops here. You wont find the chunky raw drench in the guitar tone and you wont find the deep bellows one may be use to hearing from my favourite death metal scene. Instead you will find a more 'blackened' feel, a vary in the tempos, in the riffs, a more blackened edge to the vocals and an atmosphere so dark, evil and sick that it will turn the wildest of tides to black from the ash that has come floating over from an ash cloud of a roaring volcano. If I hear any of what I am use to from Sweden, it is very subtle.

This is one of those death metal albums where you don't quite know what to expect. Just as the riffs, in their raw and dark tone tread along and catch on so well, they will pick up in blistering speeds or disjointed plummeting, screaming in hooks and tear away. With subtle moments of eerie leads and raw twisted solos, it just adds extra edge to the songs. Take a song like 'Dark Lead Dead' or 'New Depths' which takes all these elements and creates a whirlwind of chaos, sending your attention all over the place. Every song will do this. You can't sail in these conditions because as the ash starts to smother you from above, a wave crashes into your boat from the right.

A dirty and rusty throat from Seb adds this sense of filth to the album. This is where the evil lurks here. An effect to his voice that gives a sense as though his voice hovers above this thick plume of ash as it is being carried across the ocean. It is not like he has any stand out moments, it is more that his vocals fit perfect to this sound.

Of course, the drumming adds that sense of chaos as it can transform from plodding into rumbling destruction in a matter of moments. Hammering toms and kicks, hard splashes from the cymbals and a pounding snare. A moment in 'III Mouth Madness (The Many)' where everything simply rolls along before the blistering twists flurry away. When the transitions take place as frequent as they do in these songs, you know who is leading the way.

If these twists and turns are not enough, then a song like 'The Transition' could be that epic moment in the album that you might be waiting for. An acoustic opening that progresses to eerie and dark lifting leads that take command. The sermon that awakens the sea serpent who rises up from the tides and, as his lungs are being filled with ash, begins to spin out in fury and attack the boat that is being thrown around, before going back under water and swimming off to calmer territories.

With a resurgence of death metal in Sweden in recent years, Necrovation is the band that has gone off on their own here and have set their own path. Reminds me of what Dissection and Marduk did in the early 90s. Because of this different approach, this has my attention more. It will be the same feeling for others too, no doubt. Clever work.

Ikil