Harvest Ritual Volume I

Necrophagia are a rather obscure Death Metal band, who seem to have a bit of a reputation for being weird. This is their fourth album, and I'm not familiar with their old stuff, so I can't say if it's any sort of departure. This is a pretty cool album, but it is indeed a bit strange.

Starting out with arcane muttering about "If God is an astronaut", this band immediately launches into "Dead Skin Slave", which is a severely heavy and crushing slice of DM. Necrophagia don't seem to be dedicated to any one school of Death Metal - they don't play hyperfast or technical, they don't have the slower, more melodic style of a Swedish band - they do their own thing, which in places is kind of spacey. When they aren't ripping out heavy, throat-slashing riffs, they engage in horror-movie-style keyboard melodies and strange electronic effects. Sometimes they launch into these extended keyboard interludes that are supposed to be trancelike, but are often kind of dull. It's a unique sound, even if it doesn't always work.

When they are kicking ass, Necrophagia kick a lot of it, but the experimental nature of their sound undermines that quite a bit. They do manage to stand out from the crowd, but not always in a good way. If you like your music a bit on the odd side, you might like this.