Asphyx – Necroceros
Release Date: 22nd January 2021
Label: Century Media Records
Stream/Buy
Genre: Death Metal
FFO: Autopsy, Bolt Thrower, Obituary, Grave.
Review By: Paul Cairney
2020 was shite. Make no bones about it, it was a shite year and 2021 is already shaping up to continue the shitstorm. Fortunately, Dutch Death Metal heavyweights, Aphyx spent 2020 working on their 10th album, Necroceros, and have seen fit to improve 2021 by releasing this early in the year.
To be fair, Necroceros began its journey as a slow burner. It doesn’t immediately grab you, but it does encourage repeat listens, then BOOM, the sledgehammer riffs suddenly strike home, the neck muscles strain and suddenly working from home deteriorates into fragmented air-drumming chaos.
It is the third song, ‘Mount Skull’, where Asphyx hit their stride. A tickle over 6 minutes long, it drips with the class and authority of a band who know exactly who they are, a band with complete trust in their ability and a band that create riffs that tear into your soul. It is phenomenal.
It will then begin to dawn on you that you were an absolute arse for believing this was a slow burner. Instead, you will absorb Paul Baayens riffs, Martin van Drunen’s vocals grow in intensity and the bass of Alwin Zuur and Stefan Hüskens drums gain more prominence in each track.
‘Three Years of Famine’ is a song of brutal epic magnificence, that is immediately followed by the punk influenced, ‘Botox Implosion’, a track that is more than just a great song title.
The only downside to Necroceros is that it takes a few songs to get going. Perhaps an adjustment of the track-listing would have improved it, the opening song, ‘The Sole Cure is Death’ is by no means overtly weak, but it would have benefited from being deeper into the album.
This is a minor gripe though, as Asphyx have decided to kick the memory of 2020 square in its festering testicles and improve our lives here in 2021.
(4 / 5)
