Massacre – Necrolution
Reviewed by: Jon Santitoro
Review Score: 9
For all of Death Metal’s detractors: the haters, the “normies”, religious nuts, soccer moms, PMRC loyalists, “woke” activists, keyboard warriors, and cancel culture clowns, I’m afraid I have some rather unpleasant news… Death Metal still exists. And it’s bigger and better than ever.
While the latest renaissance in musical extremity has been spearheaded by an incredibly talented and ferocious third generation of bands, it is important to note that the “Old Guard” is alive, well, and writing some of the best music of their respective careers.
The latest example of Death Metal’s enduring longevity comes in the form of the upcoming album from Florida’s OSDM veterans Massacre. The new release, titled “Necrolution” is a crunchy 16 track beat-down of aggressive savagery that harkens back to Death Metal’s glory days of the early 90’s.
At it’s core, “Necrolution” is a throwback; a balled up fist of no-nonsense fury, unabashedly inspired by horror movies and the stories of HP Lovecraft. The album is expectedly tight and focused, with only two of it’s sixteen tracks being more than four minutes in length.
Pioneering front man Kam Lee, along with the recording lineup of Mike Borders (bass), Rogga Johansson (guitars), Jonny Pettersson (guitars) and Jon Rudin (drums) waste absolutely no time kicking things off with the opening track, ‘Fear of the Unknown’. As lead-off tracks go, it’s quite the tone setter, stompy and aggressive. The riffs on ‘Fear of the Unknown’ are rather straightforward, but catchy enough to get the pit whipped into a frenzy if played live.
Following the short instrumental, ‘Xenophobia’, the anthemic ‘Rituals of the Abyss’ is guaranteed to be another crowd pleaser with it’s larger than life vibe and old-school ferocity.
The blatantly Lovecraftian fifth track, ‘Death May Die’, might be the standout of the entire album. While short (clocking in at just over two minutes), it’s catchy and focused and a great homage to death metal’s early years. Brilliant!
Another short intro, ‘Chasm’ precedes ‘The Colour out of Space’, which at four minutes and thirty-one seconds, is the longest track of the album. With it’s interesting guitar work and memorable, scream-along chorus, ‘The Colour out of Space’ would make for an excellent single, should the band decide to go that route.
‘The Things that Were and Shall Be Again’ is an Evil Dead inspired crusher complete with sound bites that could have easily graced the classic death metal albums of the 80’s and early 90’s.
The back half of “Necrolution” is as strong as the front with tracks like ‘Shriek of the Castle Freak’ and ‘Curse of the Resonator’ delivering more nostalgic (yet fresh) sonic brutality. The former, in particular, boasts an up-tempo punk vibe that will make heads bang.
Massacre returns to a more breakdown driven style with ‘Shroud of Shadows’, another tight track that should translate well to the stage. Indeed, the majority of “Necrolution” seems to be written with that goal in mind, which isn’t a bad thing by any means.
Finally, the tolling of great bells heralds the doomy intro of the album’s closer, the aptly named ‘Ad Infinitum: The Final Hour’. It’s a fitting finale’ for this raging banger of a record.
Overall, “Necrolution” is a punishing and promising release; one that will please OSDM fans with both it’s nostalgic atmosphere and vision for the future of death metal.
“Necrolution” is scheduled for release 11/8/24 via . Agonia Records