Necrophobic - Womb of Lilithu
The marketing of Metal music is always something that I find amusing. Take the promo blurb from Womb of Lilithu for example. The sticker on the front of the CD case reads: “The legendary Swedish Blackened/Death Metal horde has returned with its best album yet!” I like Necrophobic. I’ve followed them since The Nocturnal Silence. But I don’t consider them “legendary.” Bathory is legendary. You can see the influence of Quorthon in every Black Metal LP that came after 1990. Motorhead is legendary. Heavy music owes almost as much to Lemmy as it does to Tony Iommi, and don’t get me started on what the musical world owes Black Sabbath. You don’t see that kind of influence when it comes to Necrophobic. Which brings us to the new LP, Womb of Lilithu. The music here is pretty good stuff, providing melody, atmosphere and also enough ass-kicking Death Metal to satisfy the older fans who liked the early Slayer/Morbid Angel-influenced material from The Nocturnal Silence. Where this record hits a snag is in the vocals. Tobias Sidegard (who has since departed from the band) has a style that is sort of a snarling Hardcore-esque delivery that is at odds with the music a considerable part of the time. The upside to that style is that you can understand most, if not all, of what he’s saying. The downside is that it’s not melodic enough to go along with the music. It’s a bit on the hit or miss side of things. When it works, it’s gold. When it doesn’t, the melody and atmosphere dissipates and the uniqueness of the band’s sound becomes basic Death Metal. It also doesn’t help that he occasionally drowns out the guitars. That leads us to gripe number two about this album. The guitars just aren’t prominent enough most of the time. The other elements that Necrophobic incorporate into their songs often bury the guitars or render them ineffective because they can’t be heard properly. There’s plenty of melody and excellent riffs on display here, but you have to pay attention if you’re going to notice them. Those two things don’t bring Womb of Lilithu completely down, but they do detract from what would have otherwise been an excellent LP. Even with that, I still enjoyed Womb of Lilithu quite a bit. For me, “The Necromancer” and “Infinite Infernalis” are worth the purchase price by themselves. If you can live with the above mentioned detractions, there is still plenty to recommend here.
(1) Comment(s)
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OnlyInDeath said:
I always hate “for fans of” stickers more than anything, especially if they’re stuck to the actual jewel case and not the wrap. Thanks, wouldn’t want to be able to look at the cover art without taking the booklet out.
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