Well this album has been a real horror story for Killjoy and his shock troops. Whiteworm Cathedral should have been out a couple of years ago but has been held up in litigation hell. Finally though it is time for the group’s seventh album, the first since 2011 ‘Deathtrip 69’ to see the light of darkness and allow us to live in terror once again. If ever there was a band to mix horror and extreme music together properly it is Necrophagia, they have been doing so since way back in 1983 and paying homage to the real splatter that matters. I get really annoyed with the term ‘horror’ being thrown around with music these days; I mean horror punk, what’s that shit? A bunch of bad quiffed evil Elvis crooners reminiscing about music and films from the 50’s when everything was all safe and sanitized. Necrophagia go for the darkness lurking within, where you have to seek it out citing the August Underground, the Cannibal Holocaust’s the real evil darkest recesses of visceral horror in its basest form. I love the way that each song is part tribute to a film, director, maniac, sub-genre, actor, or something legitimate within the horror world and eagerly dipped into these new nightmares, aptly all 13 of them.
As I mentioned in reviewing Fornicus this also starts off with a sample from Mexican horror flick Alucarda but only briefly and very much to the point before the grinding, grating guitars and thick sluggish bass plough in, as remorseless as that vat of acid spilled in The Beyond closing in and offering no escape. Killjoy’s wretched, blood gurgles join in vomited from the pits, seeking out victims and drum work dramatically booms out as this Black Mass shows the band are well and truly Reborn. Jagged guitar solos sluice over it all and the twin harmonics of Scrimm and Abigail Lee Nero bite sharp and deep. At times you may have your work cut out looking for further insight into songs such as the intriguingly entitled ‘Вий.’ At others such as ‘Angel Blake’ things should be much more evident as British classic Blood On Satan’s Claw and the beautiful sorcery laid spell cast from the divine actress Linda Hayden is paid tribute to. The welcome return of some witchy keyboard which I guess is courtesy of Mirai adds to this one’s doomed stomp nicely, dare I say there’s a bit of a Cathedral feel to this one. There’s lots of drama and a feel of the Grand-Guignol and macabre at times, the austere organ work on ‘Warlock Messiah’ being a case in point. There are no other bands I would have let get away with a well-trodden Exorcist sample but Necrophagia bring it to Fear The Priest and prepare to splatter us with pea green vomit and I’m happy to sit here and take it full in the face. It’s grim and macabre as the good vs evil battle is played out with Killjoy gargling out the words “I am no one” like a man suitably possessed.
Although it’s all very X certificate it doesn’t mean things are without a sense of fun at times and you can just bounce around to numbers like ‘Coffins’ without delving into the subject matter too deep and get into it by banging your head and throwing plastic limbs around your cave on Halloween, you don’t actually have to be a bone\fide (sic) necrophiliac, besides there’s not enough bodies lying around for everyone to join in. Ahem. Moving on to Hexen Nacht there’s an intro Dimmu Borgir would have been proud of before this witches dance pounds in with a great bass heavy sound to it and sampled salutations of Hail Satan; it’s impossible to ignore its call. There are certain things that are essential on an album like this and one is a tribute to Nazi zombies, this is admirably rallied out with ‘March Of The Deathcorps(e)’ and if I were to go out on a limb here this would be the single of the album as it’s catchy as hell, with a particularly deadly chorus that really gets in your head and takes over your braaaaains. Fulci fans need not feel short changed either as penultimate number ‘The Dead Are Among Us’ has some meaty samples from the seminal ‘Zombie Flesh Eaters’ stalking their way through it. Finally it’s left to the title track to nail the lid on the coffin and it has to be said that when it started I thought they had actually managed to get Fabio Frizzi in to do a guest spot as it sounds completely authentic to his fantastic scores before the song itself unleashes hell for the final time brutally melodic and punishing with the song title being jubilantly called out like it’s summoning you to a black mass.
I was well up for a new dose of Necrophagia after seeing them live last time, which now seems far too long ago and glad that this has finally hit. Typically I really want to see the band live again but performances here are few and far between. Still with this, the back catalogue and all the films to go with them I’ll just have to have my own party with a few special, select dead fiends.
(8.5/10 Pete Woods)
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