Necrowretch – Swords of Dajjal

Reviewed by: Kenneth Gallant

Review Score 9.0

You have to love it when a band can build tenure in any musical genre. When a band like Necrowretch is eating up fifteen years in the business it’s quite a feat. Now I say this having very little exposure to the band’s discography, but upon hearing their latest effort, I have to say I’m quite impressed.

The album in question is Swords Of Dajjal and it’s due out February 2nd on Seasons of Mist Underground Activists. What you get here is an album clocking in around thirty-seven minutes of the blackened-death variety and it only took three years in the making according to the band.

This is also album number five, coming upon the heels of the whole world shut down debacle of COVID, and it’s quite an interesting back story as to how this record came about. For starters, the previous release The Ones From Hell (came out in 2020) was meant to give the band a huge push right out of the gate. A European tour was put together with Kampfar and Taake, but that was quickly squashed when the pandemic erupted. The band was forced into shutdown mode, so they decided to write some new songs.

These songs gave the band a chance to upgrade their power and depth as a musical entity and according to singer Vlad, he took singing lessons to meet that challenge, along with upgrading their gear and tuning the sound. What came about afterwards is a sound of intensely written black metal, but with more variety and some death metal layering in for good measure.

This all sounds exciting, so when perusing over the press-kit materials I quickly realized the band means business on this new release. So without further adieu, here’s some of my analysis on what to expect with Swords Of Dajjal.

The guitars are out front on the opening track ‘Ksar Al-Kufar’, along with Vlad’s raspy vocal delivery in a pronounced way. He sounds immediate here and I’m liking what I am hearing. There’s some nice ominous passages that start up on ‘The Fifth Door’ right out of the gate. The commanding drone of the guitars reach my ears quickly and Vlad layers his vocals with a fiery passion. The song spirals into a meaty mid-section and I am completely enthralled with this new sound.

‘Di Mauri’ begins with a demonic passage of speech and blackened guitars that spew out a tone of nastiness. The band’s new drummer N. Destroyer is on fire and I’m getting some early-era Entombed vibes here tonally. The pace quickens on the title track Swords Of Dajjal because those riffs take centre stage and provide meaty fisticuffs before sprawling into a doom laden passage. This is definitely some serious stuff happening and we’re only half-way through the recording.

It’s hard to tell what is being said lyrically, but I suppose ‘Numidian Knowledge’ is waxing poetically on the ways of this semi-nomadic tribe known as the Numidia population. As esoteric as it sounds, the song spirals out like a group of monks deviating from their daily ritual of prayers and mediation and embarking on some bloodletting. It’s a pretty cool song for the most part and I do like the snaky passages leading up to the end of it. The next track ‘Vae Victis’ is a black metal staple with all the fixings, as the guitars drone along until the stark turn into barked out death vocals and blasting guitars. It’s such a great way to end the number.

‘Daeva’ is a short instrumental track that follows; getting punchy and straight to the point. However, it’s contrasted by the closing number ‘Total Obliteration’ as being the longest track here. You get some precision drumming and drony guitars to start out, but Vlad’s vocals are shouted out and seem to give the song some added extra dimension. There’s a smooth transition into the eerie sounds of hands sliding across the neck of the guitar strings that is a really neat effect to bring an end to the proceedings. I have to say this track concludes with a bang and it compliments the other seven tracks before it.

I have to say this is a banger of a release! It’s built upon a new and improved sound, plus it expertly straddles along the genres of both black and death metal. Vlad’s vocals are a high point for me and you can’t go wrong with a band who puts its best foot forward in earnest of improving their sound overall. Let’s see what they do on the live concert circuit in 2024.

Swords of Dajjal will be released February 2, 2024 on Season of Mist