The first full length debut, after six years and five demos, by these US Black Metallers has a lot to prove. As their own biography states, there is indeed a lot of “talentless crap flooding the airwaves” (particularly in the USBM scene) and the band’s confident stance definitely makes them a target for the “build-‘em-up ‘n’ knock-‘em-down” school of music critics. Thankfully though, Necrite have enough vitriol and skill in their sound to back up their confidence.
‘A Mass For The Harvest Of Death’ has that 1349 style of primordial rage and deep rasping vocals that lends so well to primitive Black Metal, and best of all the band keep it going for a skull-splitting sixteen minutes without it getting repetitive. ‘Bereft of Hope’ breaks out the ambient atmospherics for an almost doomier slant on the primordial black metal sound - occasionally the vocals sound a bit misplaced and a page from the Anaal Nathrakh book might serve them better, but a damn good effort nonetheless.
‘Bathing Open Wounds with Shards of Glass’ is as harsh sounding as you’d imagine - a full on necro assault on the ears that is part 1349 and part Mayhem in sound. The title track ‘Sic Transit Gloria Mundi’ is 27-minutes of distorted bass, ambient samples, demonic vocals and hanging guitars that slither and writhe around each other before coming together in a furious union. The final song ‘Worship the Sunn ((o))’ is a seven-and-a-half minute slab of heavy ambient funeral-doom centred around controlled guitar feedback and spectral chanting.
This is USBM that thinks outside of the very small box that the genre has created for itself. Yes, the raw, primordial, soundtrack to the apocalypse sounds are all there, but the band also have their share of secret weapons. An ear for avant garde ambience, funeral-doom flirtations and an experimental heart underlie every song which makes for a very gratifying listening experience.
http://www.myspace.com/necrite
