Plenty of old school fervour, bristling with anger and attitude…
Review by Paul Castles
Release date: 17 August 2015
The intro to Finnish death metal crew Necrodium‘s debut full length release Remnants is about as interesting as watching raindrops slide down a window. But once that distraction is over with we get to the meat of what Necrodium are all about. ‘The Vengeance (From Beneath)’ opens up with an anarchic explosion, at the peak of which the first death metal growls start to kick in. Without wishing to stamp on anyone’s politically correct toes, the best compliment I can offer is that you don’t even realise Necrodium’s singer is female. Lin Morbid has a great growl and uses it to good effect, even more so on the next track ‘Into Oblivion’ in which she digs deep into her voicebox before coming out with a grizzly roar that would cause a cadaver to turn in his sleep.
Necrodium’s tempo is not the pedal to the metal style favoured by the majority of death metal acts. Instead the songs have space to breathe, with some neatly manoeuvred tempo changes thrown in. There’s savagery by the bucketload on ‘Torture Test’ which carries a meat hook big enough to hold a prize porker with Linda’s larynx working overtime between rhythmic assaults and almost prehistoric gargles.
By now the mood is set and ‘Cannibalizer’ is another gore banquet overflowing with offal. Sticksman Kim Mutilator keeps the blastbeats flowing like fizz on a hen night as the aural waves of depravity sweep over like a bucket of slime. Man-mountain Guitarist Henkka Disembowelment (by now thinking these names might not be the ones on the Finnish electoral roll!) dictates the flow of the songs with his incisive playing while also stepping in with backing vocals at various stages. Henkka’s the sole survivor from the 2006 original Necrodium line-up when they started out as a trio, the current line-up more or less falling into place around 2012.
With song titles like ‘…As Your Flesh Rots’ the Cannibal Corpse comparisons are never going to be too far away. Lin even sports one of their shirts in the press photos. While musically not as powerful as the legendary Corpsegringer crew – and let’s face it, who is? – Necrodium still lay down plenty of old school fervour, bristling with anger and attitude. This album only features seven songs (six after the intro) and comes in at 30 minutes. Almost a third of this is taken up with the crushing closer ‘Remnants of Claustrophobia’. Ten minutes is really going it some with a death metal track but Necrodium manage to maintain the interest and just about get away with it. While not the most original album to land this year there’s sufficient quality from the Helsinki quartet to make it worthwhile any discerning death metal fan giving them a listen.
7 out of 10
Track listing:
- Voices from the Wheel (intro)
- The Vengeance (From Beneath)
- Into Oblivion
- Torture Test
- Cannibalizer
- …As Your Flesh Rots
- Remnants of Claustrophobia
