Artist: Nekromantheon/Audiopain
Title: Split EP
Type: 7” vinyl EP
Label: Duplicate Records
You can’t beat a bit of old school, poser-baiting, Christ-raping, patched-up jacket wearing, beer-guzzling thrash metal…and when one of the band members involved is affiliated with black-thrash maniacs Aura Noir, well you know it’s gonna slay! With only two tracks – that’s one track per band, it goes without saying that this is about quality rather than quantity. While personally it hardly seems worth the effort of filling out my credit card details when Nekromantheon have a full-length waiting just around the corner anyway, I’m in no doubt that there is a small army of collectors out there waiting to get their grubby mitts on a copy, being that it is limited to 1000 copies.
You’ve heard Possessed, yeah? You dig early Slayer (hell, Show No Mercy WAS their best album, everyone knows that and if you don’t agree you deserve to Die By The Sword!) Well then both tracks here should appeal to your Twisted Minds, and probably going into any great detail on this would be a patronising insult to your intellect. Nekromantheon come hurrying through with a razor-sharp riff that actually speeds up sharpish despite not thinking that was possible. The drumming is furious and the guitars jump about in a deadly ‘Annihilation Spree.’ There’s a consistent flow to this as it slows down and takes you through a mid-paced romp gradually returning to full speed. A slow, doom laden intro to Audiopain’s ‘Memory Of Man’ breaks up the pace a bit again before thrashing full speed ahead. This one shifts and changes pace quite a bit with slower atmospheric parts and rough and ready guitar riffs. The vocals are spewed out with real vehemence and almost deathly gruffness.
All in all this is an enjoyable listen that takes more of an atavistic approach rather than attempting to break new ground. Catch Nekromantheon in the UK in October at the Live Evil festival.
http://www.duplicate-records.com/duplo33.htm
http://www.myspace.com/audiopain
http://www.myspace.com/nekromantheon
