Review Summary: Painfully average, with nothing interesting to offer. But things can be fixed.
In this day and age, (especially after an oversaturation of music from 2024) you need to give listeners a reason to choose you over the rest that do the exact same thing. Without this in mind, you will only remain as a local band/artist. This thought process does not seem to have popped in with the members of Necroknight, and especially with their debut LP, The Skullthrone.
Necroknight is a German Death Metal band who also released a handful of singles, a demo, and an EP before this. But I don't think it will be any more creative than this.
The Skullthrone has major problems that drag it down, the most agreeable of which is the almost complete absence of variety. The album is full of generic, catchy, and melodic riffs that you forget a half hour after you listen to it. The only time this lets up is halfway through the 6th track, Fallen Knight. This is easily the most engaging part of the album. The change in tone makes the melodies more memorable, with the lone guitar doing all of the work.
The thing is, all of these guys are reasonably good at what they do. Nothing sounds bad, and the vocals actually sound good. But the thing with Death Metal is that the growling vocals are held up by the instrumental. The production is as clean as a whistle, so there’s no problems there. The second issue I find is that despite the capability of everyone in the band, there is no attempt to stand out.
I might be biased here. I listen to a lot of experimental music, and I also don’t listen to much Melodic Death Metal. I try my best to understand the music before I write a review. But this entire album bores me. Here’s my personal advice.
When you start jamming and writing songs for your next album, start messing around. Try to break free from the tropes that you all leaned on so heavily for this album. If you don’t want to try out weird song structures, atonal notes, or dissonance (which I perfectly understand), then try to add other influences. If there’s a band member that likes other genres of death metal, try incorporating it into the sound while still keeping the Melodic Death Metal identity the band is going for. It will make the next album a huge breath of fresh air.
Summary: Add more elements and experiment. If you don't want to get too weird, then use other genre influences. Also, add more variety. What you guys did halfway through Fallen Knight is a pretty good start. Add more elements like that and you’ll get more interest.
Would I recommend this album? No. There are other bands who do this so much better, and don't use every trope in the book. But I’m using this review to hopefully provide input, as they are a pretty new band.
Recommended Tracks: Fallen Knight.