Necrophagist is a band renowned for their technical abilities. From the extremely fast and ever-changing guitars, to the smooth and quick bass-playing,to the inhumanly fast drumming, Necrophagist are definitely not slouches when it comes to their instruments. But how is their songwriting ability? To put it simply: adequate. They can write pretty good death metal songs with all the trademarks of the genre: the low tunings, the growling vocals, and the blast beating. Pretty good does not equal great, though, which is one of the main problems with this album.
Everyone knows about Muhammed Suiçmez already, but just to tell everyone again: this guy is an insane guitarist. His solos have neo-classical influences to be sure, and his lightning fast riffs almost never let up, save for a few spots on the album. The only gripe people seem to have with him are his vocals. Personally, I find them to be perfectly fine vocals for a death metal band. His voice is low and growly, and he stays in the same range for pretty much the whole album. The fact that he can sing while playing his intensely complex guitar riffs and solos is what is really impressive though. Sami Raatikainen, the other guitarist in Necrophagist, plays along with Suiçmez, which believe me, is no easy feat. He doesn't get as many chances to show off as some of the other members, but his contributions to the album are noticeable.
Stephan Fimmers is also a phenomenal bassist. His tone is just excellent-. When he solos here and there, they always sound great- check out the beginning of
Only Ash Remains and parts of
Stabwound for proof. Despite being in the background most of the time, he gets more recognition than most bassists today, and it's always good to see the bassist get noticed. Finally, drummer Hannes Grossmann (who is no longer a member of the band, but played on this album) is just crazy. He can blast beat at insane speeds and maintain those said blasts for plenty of time. His slow beats have variation in them and feature many cymbals and a lot of double bass-playing. A great drummer.
So then, if all the members are so technically advanced, and they can write good death metal songs, then what could possibly be wrong with this album? Well the problem lies in the technicality- most of the songs on this album feel mechanical, as though robots were programmed to play them. Aside from certain parts of certain songs, you can't really feel any emotion or passion from any of the members.
Diminished to Be is the closest to any emotional song we get, and even that features 64 BPM blast-beating and fast low-tuned guitar riffs. This album is also very slickly-produced, unlike many death metal albums, which gives it a more mainstream feel (or at least as mainstream as music like this can sound). That feeling of mechanization never really leaves you throughout the album, or at most, only for brief periods of time. Even the album's best track,
Stabwound, feels as though Suiçmez sat down, made up a bunch of riffs, then got a computer to play them as he added a bunch of neo-classical guitar solo-ing. Then he showed the other members of the band this and told them all to play as fast as possible as he growled on top of it all. This album just lacks any emotion at all, and that is its biggest flaw.
If you can look past the lack of emotion and can focus only on the technicality then this album will get a 5. However, for the rest of us, music needs emotion and variety to feel lively- that's what gives it that extra push from being just mindless riff-ing to being something truly unique.
Highlights:
Stabwound,
The Stillborn One,
Diminished to Be,
Only Ash Remains
