Review Summary: Greek for "Dead Christ," Necros Christos creates a quaint death metal record other bands can only aspire to.
This album is the ultimate showcase for what death metal can really do. That's basically what it takes to get me really interested in a death metal record these days... it has to be avant-garde. There's such a huge pool of it wallowing in repetition and recycled schematas. Between the resurgence of old school death metal in new bands and old school death metal bands trying to re-create what they were once best at (which doesn't always turn out to be a bad thing, but still), it's a genre largely gone stale. If there's not something different about it, it's not going to compel me for very long. And I'm not talking about lame symphonic effects, I'm talking about things that actually make it stand out. If it's uniform, it's probably going out the window. If it's technical with zero creativity, it's probably going out the window. If it's brutal for the sake of being brutal, it's probably going out the window. Revocation, Origin, Obscura, Decrepit Birth... cast these aside and pick up Necros Christos'
Doom of the Occult if you want to hear an album that sets a standard by which creative death metal can strive to meet.
Doom of the Occult is about as creative and non-uniform as a death metal record can be. There were 23 tracks on Necros Christos’ stellar debut,
Triune Impurity Rites, and there are 23 tracks on Doom of the Occult. Twenty-three tracks, an hour and thirteen minutes in length. The intro, outro, and interludes comprise fourteen tracks on the album, all of which are instrumental. Temple's I-VIII consist mostly of church organs. Gate's 1-5 consist of Arabic folk instruments (including mostly acoustics and woodwinds, "Gate 2"). These contrast impressively well with the death metal tracks on the album, and they very successfully prevent the album from becoming monotonous (which a lot of albums would over the course of an hour and thirteen minutes). So if you do the math, there are only nine metal tracks on this album, and with it being Necros Christos, they're all doom influenced. "Baal of Ekron" and "Succumbed to Sarkum Phagum" are examples of 'slow progression.' Starting out faster, like a more typical death metal track, and subsiding to doom. “Doom of Kali Ma – Pyramid of Shakti Love – Flame of Master Shiva,” which is the longest track on the album at 9:27, as gathered from the song title and the lyrics (Kali Ma - Hindu goddess of shakti/devi, all other Hindu goddesses are considered her "manifestations in different light," and the mention of Shiva - the Hindu god of destruction) it's about worshiping mythical Hindu deities. This track is particularly doomy, and really demonstrates Necros Christos' masterful songwriting ability. The tempo ranges from crawling to blistering. "Descending into the Kinly Tomba" features a fantastic solo about 2:25 in, as does "Necromatique Nun" at 2:51 in; the solo at the end of "Necromatique Nun" might be the best moment in this massive 75-minute composition.
Influences could easily come from Purtenace's one album, Autopsy, Hellhammer, or any number of old school death metal bands, but it's also steeped partly in doom. This album is really a perfect example of structural death metal perfection.
HIGHLIGHTS: "Invoked from Carrion Slumber," "Doom of Kali Ma – Pyramid of Shakti Love – Flame of Master Shiva," "Succumbed to Sarkum Phagum," "The Pharaonic Dead," "Descending into the Kinly Tomba," as well as "Gate 2" - the best of the interludes.
