I bought this one purely by accident. I'd ordered Candle Serenade's album "Nosferatu's Passion" from Deviation Records, but it was out of stock, so I was sent Necromass - "Abyss Calls Life" instead. Of course, if I didn't like it, I was welcome to return it and order something else instead. Anyway, before I put this CD in the player, I had quite low expectations. Already disappointed that I hadn't received the Candle Serenade CD, my dismay grew even more when I saw the front cover of the Necromass CD... a crap cartoony drawing of dismembered bodies in a sort of pool of blood which flows into a big whirly circle. Plus, the sticker on the case says "schizophrenic, violent, offensive black art." Jesus Tod, I thought, this is going to be cheesy crap. But, I was wrong!
Yes, I'm happy to report that this CD is actually really good, and I'm more than happy to settle for it instead of the Candle Serenade one. So I'm pleased that Mark of Deviation Records picked out a good alternative for me. Necromass are Italian, and they play BM with a strong touch of DM. Or is it DM with a touch of BM?? It's quite original sounding, and the nearest comparison I could make is probably to their (also Italian) friends Opera IX. There's also perhaps a touch of Maleficarum to their sound, too. It's mostly midpaced, melodic with great guitarwork and synths which don't always go for the obvious melodies, yet still manage to be catchy and memorable. There's some weird bits, probably done with a flanger pedal, which sound really effective... especially alongside the eerie whispers in the first song, "(An Animal) Forever." The vocals are mainly either growled (similar to "Transform All Suffering Into Plagues" by Rotting Christ, that kind of growl) or rasped in a blackish way. From time to time there's also some faint female vocals in the background, which add to the atmospheric bits.
There are 8 songs here, including 1 instrumental, and it lasts for an impressive 51 minutes 9 seconds. The duration of each song is actually different to what it says on the CD cover, for some reason, but only a minute or so out. Anyway, my favourite songs are probably "(An Animal) Forever," "Unpure," and "Into The Warmth Of Darkness." The music is reasonably aggressive at times, but also quite laid back at others... and the usage of acoustic guitar and piano is also evident. The guitar solo in "Unpure" is a delight, being played with the flanger effect again, and melodically dancing over an acoustic backing. "Unpure" goes straight into the next song, an acoustic instrumental, which then goes straight into the following track, "A Serpent Is Screaming In The Abyss," another good song. Towards the end I thought they were suddenly going to launch into "Full Moon Madness" by Moonspell... give it a listen and you'll see what I mean (i.e. one of the guitar bits is slightly similar).
The end of the entire album is pretty off the wall... hypnotic acoustic guitar fades into weird computer game-like sounds. The thing I like about Necromass is that they're a bit experimental in places, but they still manage to make proper songs, without going all avant garde and pretentious.
A pleasant surprise. If you can ignore the cheesy cover, then I think you should give it a listen.
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