Album Review: Necrot – Blood Offerings

By Doug Walker

Necrot is a three-piece death metal/punk band from Oakland, California. They really don’t need much more introduction than that. Their music speaks for itself. It’s fast. It’s punishing. It’s raw. They’ve been around since about 2011 and their new release ‘Blood Offerings’ is going to be one of the toughest heavy records of 2017. 

Right off the bat, it’s extremely rare I hear a band that plays with this kind of intensity but manages to keep a raw feel to their sound. Most bands that play this kind of metal rely heavily on compression, triggers, and exaggerated distortion. Not to say that kind of stuff isn’t cool in its own regard, but this record is stripped down to give you an extremely organic sonic experience.

Chad Gailey’s drumming is that of a homicidal cyborg. His playing is tight, heavy, aggressive and punishing. The way the drums are mixed, it sounds extremely huge. That’s pretty tough to do with this kind of playing. There’s just a hint of room echo on the drums. When that sound is used, it’s very easy for things to become muddy at higher speeds. Gailey’s drumming is tight and on point with this sound, which is pretty awesome. A huge sounding drumkit blasting you a thousand times a minute is a great way to prepare yourself for a cage fight. Or a day at the office. Whichever.

Luca Indrio brings the rhythm together with some insanely precise bass playing. The roomy feel of the way this record is recorded and mixed requires a rhythm section that’s so deep in the pocket they’re crushing balls. Indrio and Gailey are definitely crushing some balls on this record. The bass playing tends to be close to the rhythm guitar, which is why a three-piece band sounds like at least a 4 or 5-piece. Indrio is also singing. The death metal vocals are guttural with a rasp around the edge… like a viking that smokes a pack of camels a day. To be honest, I can’t make out some of the lyrics, but that’s not why I listen to bands like this. The vocals in music like this are, to me, another instrument. He could be singing about the merits of turbo tax and it wouldn’t matter to me. I’d still be ready to grab a broad axe and cleave a villager in twain after listening to him sing for half an hour. The vocals are perfectly brutal.

Sonny Reinhardt gets a whole full length to play with his vast array of solo styles, which I nerd out on pretty hard. He’s got his own approach to playing lead guitar which is highly recognizable if you’re familiar with his work in other projects. He’s got a great combination of the more classic elements of lead guitar mixed with a healthy does of some less orthodox scales. I think my favorite thing about the lead work on this record is that it isn’t a sweep-fest. It’s solid, tasteful shredding that adds to each song and rarely repeats itself. The riffing is brutal and evil. The tones aren’t overdone and it makes the guitars very easy to follow. A deep growling buzzsaw guitar onslaught.

This is definitely one of the heaviest things I’ve heard this year, if not ever. This is a great record for fans of death metal. More importantly, this is a great death metal record for people who aren’t fans of the genre. It’s pretty killer to hear it done so tastefully, something that is all too often overlooked. This is a fantastic record to listen to when you need to kill someone but you just don’t want to put on pants.

Rating: 9/10

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Record Label: Tankcrimes
Release Date: June 9th 2017

Track Listing:
1. The Blade (5:59)
2. Rather Be Dead (4:43)
3. Shadow And Light (3:55)
4. Blood Offerings (5:35)
5. Empty Hands (4:23)
6. Beneath (5:03)
7. Breathing Machine (4:58)
8. Layers Of Darkness (5:29)

Total Duration: 40:05

Necrot links: facebook

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