October 2021 Feature Release – The Horde Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The Horde has been nominated by Ben. It's 2004's third & final album "Epitaph" from German technical death metallers Necrophagist.

https://metal.academy/releases/5304

Now we are talking!

The wonderful blooping leads of Muhammed Suiçmez and Christian Münzner are a joy to behold on Epitaph, they act like some melodic palate cleanser to the stringent structures of the technical death metal that dominates the album with an almost military like presence. This presence is more NATO than hostile invaders though as I find much of the uniformity of Epitaph to be quite pleasing and almost gentle.

The riffs are almost like a melodic technical death metal in origin, and they seem to bounce off the drums and bass as they support them. The pacing of the drums is superb throughout the album also, with tracks like the title track showing the versatility of Hannes Grossmann brilliantly. His drumming acts almost as a buffer to those urgent and racing riffs.

What also strikes me about Necrophagist’s sophomore is how comfortable a listen it is in terms of individual track and overall album length at the same time. With the longest track being at five minutes there is no sense of bloated technicality on show here. Instead tracks stick around just long enough to showcase the talent on show and then it is off to the next track. All too often on technical death metal albums I find a bit of clock watching going on and having to fight the temptation to hit the skip button, however there are no such impatient impulses here. This is largely due to the time relief that is applied but also because the song writing is genuinely interesting. I cannot help but be transfixed by the penultimate track Seven and its catchy riffing and mechanical rhythms that breath organically alongside one another superbly.

Despite being more than familiar with Epitaph I was surprised to see that I did not even have a copy stored in my stream subscription (now rectified). Considering the mastery on show here it is a shame the band went their separate ways after this as there was so much promise still left to be fulfilled. However, talk about going out on a high note.

4.5/5

I think I respect this album because I didn't get into listening to Technical Death Metal with any of the classics like Death or Atheist or Gorguts. I started with modern Tech Death which I can definitely agree with Vinny's 4th paragraph in that a lot of it can be a bloated mess that is complex as hell but doesn't really carry any weight. It's a fine line to walk and I can generally withstand more noodling than most angry commenters that lose their mind because somehow there's no substance in any Tech Death record, but Epitaph is pretty tame all things considered. No song goes above 5 minutes, is tightly written with interesting solos, and doesn't do anything out of the ordinary that ruins subsequent listens. I think Epitaphe's simplicity and straight-to-the-point nature is vastly overlooked in a landscape with 10-minute Death Metal epics that fail to produce any sort of enjoyable riff or impressive solo. I feel like I'm overrating this but I was able to get back-to-back listens with no problems at all, so I can't help but enjoy this one.

4/5

I really enjoyed revisiting this one. While I'm well onboard with some of the thoughts above in that I've more often than not found that the modern brand of super-technical death metal values style over substance & rarely gets the balance right with regard to memorability, Necrophagist definitely tip toe along that line but have enough of a pedigree in the early 90's greats of the genre (see Death) to know how to utilize their ridiculously overthetop skill sets in a consistently engaging way. The vocals of guitarist Muhammed Suicmez are dark & brutal in an Immolation sort of way & this works to juxtapose some of the more melodic guitar work which may normally have seen my score dipping a bit. There's little doubt that the sweeping fiddly-diddly neoclassical solo work is overdone a bit & can veer towards practice exercise territory at times but it's the incredibly precise drumming of human-metronome Hannes Grossmann that ensures my attention never wanders as you'll rarely hear a time-keeper that's more in control of his craft. 

The consistency of this record is probably it's strongest quality as there's nothing here that dips below a very solid standard but Necrophagist manage to take things to another level altogether with the back-to-back highlight tracks that kick off the B side (i.e. the title track & "Only Ash Remains"). Anyone that knows me well won't be surprised that these are probably the two most consistently brutal offerings on the tracklisting but I also enjoy the moments where the band hint at more progressive horizons & I feel that this is a direction that they could have explored further.

To put it simply though, any tech death diehard worth his salt will be absolutely all over this album. It's beautifully executed & the production job is crystal clear so you can hear every nuance of the very complex arrangements. In saying that, it falls a little short of classic status as I can't help but crave a little more of that sinister graveyard atmosphere in my death metal while the stop-start nature of ultra-technical metal ends up being a bit too jerky to command the deeply physical reaction that I inevitably receive from the greats.

For fans of Obscura, Spawn Of Possession & The Faceless.

4/5

OK, so please don't get mad any of you Necrophagist fans out there, but after the vocals kicked in on opener Stabwound I just burst out laughing. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, but I've been feeling in a strange mood today and as I thought I'd better get through the features, I decided to listen to Epitaph this evening. At the aforementioned point in the album, I just pictured the band playing with extremely frowny faces and thought bubbles saying something like "shit, we are SO intense, man" and the inherent ridiculousness of the human condition must have overwhelmed me. I have no axe to gring with Necrophagist, I've never listened to them before, but they just painted such a vivid picture for me that I couldn't help myself. And before anyone points out the fact, I include myself in the being ridiculously intense about metal camp. How could I not with all the utter bollocks I write about music?!

Anyway, as for the music in question - it really isn't my thing unfortunately. I find overtly technical death metal never really "get's going", it just sounds too stutter-step to me and as such I can't get into it. 

Apologies all round, I don't know what's got into me today at all.