Genre: Progressive Death Metal
www.necrophagist.de
Some five years ago, a guy by the name of Muhammad Suicmez released Onset of Putrefaction (Velvet records) working under the band name Necrophagist, the album was hailed as an underground classic, although it basically went unheard by 90% of the genres fan base. Now signed to the mighty Relapse roster, Necrophagist have returned with a full line up and with what is possibly the progressive death metal album of the year in album No.2, Epitaph.
Quite understandably, particularly in the death metal scene, there is a mighty buzz about Necrophagist. To make it perfectly clear about the quality of band were talking about here, let me mention a few names: Death, Morbid Angel, Cynic, Pestilence and Athiest. If you know your Death Metal, you know that each and every one of those bands are utterly revered for their amazing technical proficiency and willingness to embrace a more progressive element in their music. Necrophagist play in the same ballpark. In fact, so good are they, theyre batting 1000!!
Necrophagist are super fucking technical punters. Not just odd timing or strange riff patterns, but extremely fucking hard to play, technical death metal. Your average death head wannabe would curl up in a corner in convulsions at the prospect of ever getting near the kind of musicianship captured on Epitaph. Its fast, unrelenting and layered with unexpected twists and turns throughout its entire journey.
The guitar virtuosity (not to mention the awesome bass playing!!) displayed by Muhammad Suicmez and his more than dexterous offsider Christian Muenzner is insane – Jaw droppingly so. Folks, I continually marvel at some of the lead work that the late Chuck Schuldiner laid down on the last few Death albums well, Suicmez is in the same league as far as fret work wizardry goes. Seriously, Suicmez is an outstanding lead guitarist his solos have that neo-classical feel about them, but emotively theyre more in tune with Chuck Schuldiner than anything like Yngwie Malmsteen. Some people might accuse Suicmez of gratuitous self indulgence such is his penchant to rip off leads whenever possible but personally, as the album is so short (eight tracks at 33 minutes) I think his work actually sounds remarkably controlled and perfectly placed within the context of his compositions.
Aside from the head spinning musicianship displayed on Epitaph, perhaps the real clincher for this album is that Necrophagist are also able to make their music work as coherent and accessible songs. Everything seems to fit furthermore, its remarkable that considering the progressive nature and intricate execution of their music, much of it is also decidedly catchy and rhythmically appealing. Ultimately for me, Epitaph has that real Death vibe about it (circa Symbolic and Sound of Perseverance). If you love those two albums, Epitaph is essential.
What about the vocals? Well, ultimately this is a death metal album. An extremely powerful and intricate one, but nevertheless it is a Death Metal album. So, as far as vocalizing goes, youve got Suicmez delivering your regular cookie cutter growling in true Karl Sanders (Nile) style. Sure, this aspect is Necrophagist at its most generic (and possibly lackluster), but the truth of the matter is that its actually not all that important. Such is the musical emphasis of this album, Epitaph could have been released vocal-less and it would have mattered nought.
There is no doubt that Necrophagist have unleashed a sure fire Death Metal classic in Epitaph. As a statement for technical, progressive death metal, it doesnt come any more succinctly that this. And as luck would have it (or via the brilliance of label marketing), just in time for the release of Epitaph, Willowtip records (USA) has re-mastered the debut Onset disc and released it with new artwork and 2 bonus tracks. I cant say anything more than BUY or DIE!!
note: 9.4/10
Tracklist
01. Stabwound
02. The Stillborn One
03. Ignominious & Pale
04. Diminished to Be
05. Epitaph
06. Only Ash Remains
07. Seven
08. Symbiotic In Theory
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