Necrophobic

Death to All

Go ahead, fear the reaper | Regain

Necrophobic weren’t kidding when they named themselves. The Swedish band has avoided death for two decades now, long enough for their fellow Sunlight Studios alumni to make dramatic stylistic shifts (Entombed), disband (At the Gates) or head towards redundancy (Grave). About the time that Tiamat traded corpsepaint for mascara, Necrophobic realized that an apprenticeship to the dark lord required eternal devotion. On Death to All, the band’s hideously fun sixth album of charred, blackened death metal, they continue to reap the rewards of being in Satan’s employ.

Death to All follows in the hoofprints of 2006’s Hrimthursum, hitching a bulletproof blackthrash rhythm section to Dissection’s obsidian guitar tonalities. Necrophobic’s attack has gotten sharper with age, their songs ever stronger. Vigorous battle cries like “Celebration of the Goat” and “Temple of Damnation” thrash forward smartly with darkened harmonies and eminently horn-raisable choruses. They’re peppered by baroque leads from Nifelheim’s shredmaster tag team of Johan Bergebäck and Sebastian Ramstedt.

Elevating Death to All is Necrophobic’s mastery of dynamics and ambience, which culminates in the acoustic guitar-burnished, tripartite title track. Later songs “The Tower” and “Wings of Death” are a little too generous with the “background choir of dead souls” trick, but all is redeemed by “For Those Who Stayed Satanic,” a devilishly catchy anthem in honor of all Luciferian loyalists. With the elocution of a proper sermonizer, Tobias Sidegård howls, “For those who believe in the dark lord / Prepare for the rise of the strong / His day has come / He’s calling us in the form of the goat god!” Fear death? Hell no. Death sounds fan-fucking-tastic.

—Etan Rosenbloom

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