Necrophagia United States

"Necrophagia are one of the earliest death metal bands, having been active, on and off, since the 80s, and even featured Phil Anselmo (under the apt pseudonym of Anton Crowley). Not surprisingly, their style on "Deathtrip 69" is just about as old school as it gets. In fact, it is old school that it is bordering on being more thrash metal than death metal - that is, Necrophagia seek back to death metal's earliest form when it was still very much anchored in thrash metal, form which it was largely derived originally.

This means an absence of blastbeats and hyper technical playing as well as loads of tremolo picking, which otherwise characterizes the genre today. Instead there are crushingly heavy riffs combined with faster thrashy riffs, all of which are kept relatively simple (although there are some odd harmonies and some hard-to-play guitar riffs every now and then)., and many of the guitar solos are more rock-ish and, sometimes, even melodic, than what fans of modern hi-tech death metal might be used to. Certain tracks are almost more crossover-like and contain elements from hardcore punk, such as "Kyra" and the title track. I actually think that thrash metal fans will enjoy this album immensely. Apart from the filler-like "A Funeral for Solange" and the odd road-trip song "Death Valley 69", this is all out thrash metal, although a track like the aptly titled "Tomb with a View" contains some slow and doom-ladden parts. Imagine if Carcass had made an album between "Heartwork" and "Swansong"... this is pretty much what that would have sounded like.

With songs about horror, murder, violence, splatter, gore and regurgitated guts, there's not much new in the lyrics department, and, while gore lyrics never really appealed to me, I suppose you can't really imagine Necrophagia singing about any other topic matters. And, of course, the harsh growled and snarled vocals suit the lyrical content quite well.

To this is primarily a thrash metal album, but, given the history of death metal, I can see why it would be considered a death metal release (I don't get why the label Season of Mist classify it as black metal though), and simply kicks ass (wearing shoes with metal spikes, rusty nails and razorblades on them).

(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"