Necropanther – Betrayal
Release Date: 3rd March 2023
Label: Self Released
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Death Thrash, Melodic Death Metal, Blackened Thrash.
FFO: At the Gates, Exodus, Skeletonwitch.
Review By: Mark Young
With a name like Necropanther and an album that is inspired by the classic Greek tale that later inspired The Warriors, there is an expectation that this is either going to be either awesome or terrible.
I’m not sold on the name, but I am sold on the album because it is unashamedly an epic death / thrash / melodic album that has taken from the best AND it starts at breakneck speeds and the pace doesn’t let up at all. It has everything you want: triplets, wah, double pace, harmonies, the lot.
On first listen, it just screams out at you that this is a statement of intent of what is to come, the riffs are infectious and cause involuntary head movements. And it continues like this all the way through, like a death metal bullet train. There is no let up in pace, and when it does slow for lead breaks, these are just royal. I love it when you are presented with an album for a band you know nothing about and come out the other side as a massive fan.
It also helps that they have managed to enlist an absolute A1 legend in producing the album – David Castillo of Ghost Ward Studios in Stockholm, who has unlocked that ‘something’ that has brought forth this absolute blinder of an album.
It’s difficult to establish stand-out tracks here because each one is just at a high level, so it would be unfair for me to try, but the album opener One and Only just has it. Breathe Evil Slower pace with harmony solo passage but with a peach of a riff that is simple but heavy and then bang into trem city which is followed by the solo which sounds like the fret board being doused in petrol and set on fire i.e. the whole thing is lit!
This is the 4th full length album from the Colorado natives and in all honesty I wouldn’t have guessed that from listening to this. It has that energy of a debut release and feels like they have been truly inspired to write and record an album that has aligned with top class production. For me, it sounds like they have managed to get everything that they love into one place without it sounding like a Xerox copy of what has been done before.
This is a release that deserves to be on peoples best of lists for 2023, and if there is any justice, it will be embraced as one of the strongest albums of the year.
1. One and Only
2. Covenant
3. Breathe Evil
4. If You Can Count
5. Into Danger
6. Revenants
7. Wanderers
8. Furies
9. Don’t Stop For Death
10. Out To The Sand
11. Betrayal
(5 / 5)
