Album Review: Necromonger – Emanation Of The Dying Perceptions

Album Review: Necromonger – Emanation Of The Dying Perceptions

Reviewed by Dan Barnes

Not to be confused with the Canadian Slamming Brutalists of the same name, the Bulgarian Necromonger, a trio formed the year before the Canuks, is just about to release their debut full-length, Emanations of the Dying Perceptions, through Xtreme Music this week. Composed of former members of Goregrind outfits Fecal Body Incorporated and Cocklush, and Death Metal act, Concrete, and wrapped up like Egyptian mummies in the promo-material, percussionist Quill Rat, guitarist/ bassist, Agrogrinder, and vocalist, Pigman, have devoted themselves to sounding as filthy and repugnant as possible, whilst being uncompromisingly, bone-crushingly heavy.

First single, Slaughter to the Bones, released in April this year, hits with a Sunn O))) drone and spewed vocals, the music is dense, the production deliberately muddy and creeping, as though the gates of Hades itself had burst open and the foul beasts had loosed their bonds. Dirty riffs and dirtier vocals corrupt any hope of salvation, that even the fragile piano at the close cannot allay. On the heels of this came the second single, and the album’s opening track, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, which begins the record with a massive wall of dissonant sound, like an aural tsunami threatening to engulf everything in its path, it feels akin to the abject misanthropy and nihilistic world view of Dragging into Sunlight, Deathspell Omega and Blut Aus Nord.

But don’t be thinking Emanations of the Dying Perception is an hour of doom and gloom as, like the world around us, there are brief moments of joy and wonder to be found amid the misery. Dissection of Consciousness’ opening passages feel like we’re listening to the music of the cosmos, a heartbeat of the otherworldly and ethereal singing to you; this one fluctuates between light and dark, offering alternate perspectives. Confessions of a Dead Poet follows a similar path, but it shorn of the wonder and the doomy pacing is more in keeping with waiting for the moment the whole edifice comes crashing down.

Bloody Picasso takes a similarly brooding attitude to pace, extending its repeated phrasing; Autophagous Erection is bult around waves and veers into Noise territory at times. Two of Necromonger’s more direct tunes, Clite Skinner and Extract of Rotting Fetus, snap and snarl with a raw and aggressive bite; chopping riffs and primal production make both disturbing listens.

Peppered through the earlier part of the record are the brief interludes, Born in Grave Wax and Meconium Eater, rather than offering respite, double-down on the despairing ambience of the album.

Emanation… is set for release on multiple formats – as these things are nowadays – and I specifically mention this as the CD and cassette versions each include an exclusive bonus track. The shiny disc version includes the nine-minute eponymous tune, Necromonger, an epic instrumental that sees the return of Slaughter’s piano lines, fitting alongside Industrial, Drone, and Noise, all corrupting the fragility of the keys. If you opt for cassette version, you’ll get Necrocannibal Pollution’s doom-laden misery and molten riffs.

Emanation of the Dying Principle is an impressive piece of music, one that is exhausting and terrifying in equal measure. It takes sheer pessimism and blends it with hopelessness and despair and serves it up to you in forty-five minutes of some of the most uncompromisingly difficult music this side of Hatred for Mankind, Immersion or Deleted Scenes from the Transition Hospital. There is no hope here, no possibility of redemption beyond the fleeting glimpse of the piano. But, like the red-coated girl in Schindler’s List, that hope is destined to be crushed beneath the boot of history.

However, if you are a fan of Dragged into Sunlight, Primitive Man or Axis of Perdition, etc, Necromonger (Bulgaria) might just be about to issue your new favourite album.

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.