Nekromantheon, Divinity of Death
Packed full of blistering riffs and an unrelenting thrash attack, Norwegian-based Nekromantheon’s debut effort Divinity of Death is finally hitting U.S. shores with a bludgeoning impact. Featuring members of Audiopain on drums (an amazing band in their own right) and Obliteration (vocals, guitar and bass), these heathen sonsabtiches combine old school Slayer and Sepultura, along with some Dark Angel, to deliver eleven solid tracks of brutal, bastardized thrash.
There’s an old school aesthetic to this album that reminds me of digging through piles of tapes as a nascent metal-head. It’s got an atmosphere that is raw, destructive and violent. Dirty riff after dirty riff hit frequently without having a rehashed vibe while the rhythm section continuously pounds away at your skull with beastly drum work and rumbling bass. This is how thrash should be — violent and aggressive.
Divinity of Death starts off a little slow as album opener “Gringo Death” ramps up to an early Sepultura-influenced blasting attack about half way into the song. The second half to the track is a calamitous crashing of drums and sick riffing along with Arse’s raspy growls and shouts. As tasty as the initial track is, it’s not until “Cry Havoc” (one of my favorite tracks) really lets you know what Nekromantheon has to offer. This fucker of a song rages like no tomorrow. It’s aggressive, unrelenting and fulf-throttle mayhem — love it!
From that point on, the band continues the burly nature of that song with the title track that is darker and creepier than any of the previous songs thus far. While I really love the galloping of the four horsemen nature of the speedier material, the mid-tempo tracks are were you can really get the full effect of the riffing Nekromantheon have to offer.
“Lex Talionis” is a 42 second romp through technical riffing and heavy handed drumming before the band jumps back into the chugging riffage with “Devolutionary Storms,” a song with some seriously catchy guitars and utterly pummeling drum work. The rest of the album from this point on is a nice mix of frantic, shorter blasts (“Acid Vision”) mixed with mid-tempo monsters like “Psyanide.” Everything is wrapped up nicely with the party-fueled “Alcoholy Terror” — the three day old, stale aroma of a beer fills the air with this one.
As far as debuts go, Divinity of Death is one hell of a raw and raucous thrash album. It’s dirty, aggressive and just too damned much fun to listen to repeatedly without any sort of “new wave” influence coming to mind. This shit is nasty!