Album Review: Necrophagia - Moribundis Grim
Reviewed by Richard Oliver
One of the seminal extreme metal bands of the 1980’s and a founder of death metal, Necrophagia were formed in 1983 and released their debut album “Season Of The Dead” in 1987 - the same year as Death released “Scream Bloody Gore”. The band released a total of seven albums until they came to an end in 2018 when band founder Killjoy sadly passed away suddenly. At the time of his death, Killjoy and the other members of Necrophagia had been working on new material which lay unfinished until now with the release of “Moribundis Grim” - the eighth and final album from Necrophagia and closing chapter of the band.
This collection of songs are the final vocal performance from Killjoy and are demo recordings that the final touring line up have completed with the aid of former members Titta Tani and Mirai Kawashima as well as special guest John McAntee (Incantation). The material continues to be the groovy and thrash laden old school death metal that the band are known for as well as being abundant with horror movie references and lyrical content.
As well as the completed demos such as the title track and ‘Scarecrows’ there is also the inclusion of a Samhain cover ‘Halloween 3, re-recorded versions of ‘Mental Decay’ and ‘Bleeding Torment’ from the debut album and a live version of ‘The Wicked’.
Given the circumstances of this album, it is very much a hodgepodge of material and the sound quality varies throughout but it is amazing that the band have put in a lot of effort to get these final recordings finished and released. There isn’t much here for the casual listener and this album is very much geared towards the hardcore Necrophagia fan. Casual listeners would be much more encouraged to listen to one of the previous Necrophagia albums before this one but there is no doubt that “Moribundis Grim” is a fitting tribute to Killjoy and a satisfying closing chapter for Necrophagia.
