Necrowretch – Swords of Dajjal
Release Date: 2nd February 2024
Label: Season of Mist: Underground Activists
Bandcamp
Genre: Black Metal, Death Metal, Thrash.
FFO: Possessed, Dark Angel, Dissection, Necrophobic, Merciless.
Review By: Rick Farley
Drawing the line between black metal, death metal and thrash, France’s Necrowretch enter their fifteenth year as a band and are beginning their most ambitious chapter of their career with Swords of Dajjal. Album number five released on season of Mist has been three years in the making and just might be the bands crowning achievement. Initially starting life unfairly pegged as an old school death metal revival band, Necrowretch’s sole vision from the multi-instrumentalist Vlad showed early signs of thrash and black metal influences within their vicious debut and continued upping the ante with each new release.
Without even knowing much about the band prior to now, it’s pretty clear from the very first track, Ksar Al-Kufar, of what nightmarish atrocities you are in for. Swords of Dajjal is a wicked amalgamation of three genres, leaning more towards the black metal side of things. The best way I could describe it would be Dissection meets Possessed meets Season of Abyss era Slayer. Sounds killer, right! Fucking right it does! Bloodthirsty, brutal, relentless, and merciless savagery, this record sounds delightfully evil. Tracks like The Fifth Door and Vae Victis rage intensely with so much frosty darkness that you will bust out the corpse paint and try to conjure up the dead, while tracks like Numidian Knowledge brutally twist and turn with the slightest progressive edge and melodic hooks. Every track maintains an infectious energy, within its tormented soundscape. Swagger mixed with ugliness is not an easy thing to pull off. Necrowretch does this with ease, sounding one part like your flesh will be ripped clean off, while the other part makes you want to headbang till your neck breaks.
Thematically, Swords of Dajjal has a mystical almost biblical vibe to it, which was inspired by Vlad’s experience living in Turkey in the 2010s. The band choose to focus on the deceitful messiah Dajjal, who is essentially the antichrist in Islam. The Coran says that he will appear as a false prophet only to bring doom to this world with an army of demons coming from the east. Clocking in at just over thirty-six minutes, all eight tracks lyrically are prophecies, past and future where Dajjal plays the leading role.
“The stars are dying
Upon the ruins
Of ancient Ghadames
Distortion of time
Frequent, sudden
And unexpected deaths
When the hearts of men
Are poisoned by sins
And lust for the devils
Rise of idols
Beast of the Earth
Swords of Dajjal”
I personally enjoyed reading the lyrics, it adds incredible mysticism to the album as a whole and gives the music even more depth and meaning.
Swords of Dajjal is an extremely aggressive album full of otherworldly atmosphere, infernal raspy growls, and razor-sharp riffs. It is dripping in black metal ugliness, with elements and moments of varied song structures and death metal/thrash complexities. Huge, distorted chords ring out over thundering double bass, while wretched guitar melodies linger. Fast-paced tremolo picking warfare combined with blast beats and horrifying shrieks lead you even further into the violent satanic underworld. Thrashy, crunchy riffs, blackened hooks and a disdain for mercy make this a hell of a fun record. As represented on the cover art by Stefan Thanneur / Manifeste, Dajjal and Necrowretch are about to wield their sword and bring forth evil upon the earth.
(4.5 / 5)
