Review: Necrophobic Kick Your Ass to Hell and Back on In the Twilight Grey
You can always tell when a band really loves doing what they do. There’s an added layer of excitement in the music that shines through when genuine passion is involved; it just packs so much more of a punch than bands that are still finding themselves or seasoned veterans going through the motions. Normally I would say God bless those happy folks, but in Necrophobic’s case, those well wishes might just earn me a swift kick in the balls.
In the Twilight Grey, the newest full length album from these Swedish purveyors of all that is dark and blasphemous, is a joy to listen to. I know black metal is supposed to be all about grimness and extinguishing the light and blah blah blah, but dammit, this is just plain fun, no matter how you slice it.
It’s very bright, upbeat, and energetic for black metal since it’s been blended so heavily with thrash and death metal, but not to the point where I’d split hairs and call it “blackened thrash” or whatever. The music is very much black metal through and through, but structurally it takes a lot of cues from thrash, mostly in the form of catchy repeating choruses and a smorgasbord of guitar solos. In fact, stylistically a couple of songs actually feel quite similar to Gossow-era Arch Enemy with the way they use melody to create atmosphere without sacrificing any of the heaviness. It’s an approach that works strongly in their favor, making the album relatively accessible and easy to digest.
The opening track “Grace of the Past” quickly builds from a slow clean intro into a powerfully infectious melody driven by rolling blast beats that don’t let up until the chorus, grabbing your attention and holding it with an iron grip until the bitter end. Once that grip is released, we quickly realize that it was only to drop us into the meat grinder as the second track “Clavis Inferni” wastes no time in pummeling us with some of the catchiest riffs on the entire album. This song is a prime example of those aforementioned traditional song structures and hooky choruses; you can just tell it was meant to be played live at a festival somewhere, with a column of pyrotechnics shooting up out of the stage and thousands of leather-clad fans throwing the horns at the end. It might seem a little cliché on the surface, but trust me, it works. It just fucking works.
The following track “As Stars Collide” might be the least dynamic song on the album, but despite them basically playing the same couple of riffs and melodies for five minutes straight (except for the slightly faster solo section) it’s somehow still fun to listen to. It feels like a battle march. Thankfully this is no indication of a loss of momentum, as is so often the case after a couple of songs, but merely the band catching their breath and preparing to strike once more.
The next couple of songs, “Stormcrow” (see the music video below) and “Shadows of the Brightest Night”, are very smartly paced, knowing exactly when to turn up the heat and when to back off a smidge to let things simmer and breathe. “Shadows” and “Clavis Inferni” may very well be tied for the catchiest chorus, although the former is a bit long in the tooth so “Clavis” would probably be the stronger song overall. But when it comes to which song has the best guitar solo, nothing beats the sixth track “Mirrors of a Thousand Lakes”. They really let Sebastian Ramstedt cut loose on that one; I’m scratching my head trying to think of the last time I heard sweep picking in black metal, and really clean sweep picking at that, but I’m drawing a blank. Not saying it’s never happened, but even if it has, whoever did it has got some stiff competition, that’s for sure.
Another great aspect of “Mirrors” that jumped out at me was that you can really hear the bass on it. It plays a very important, even essential role in shaping the sound of the intro, and even when the main riffs are going full tilt you can still hear it clanking away underneath. I’ve mentioned before that black metal often suffers from a characteristically thin final mix with a lot of the low end getting lost in the shuffle, whether intentionally or otherwise, but not this bad boy. The production value on Twilight is pristine, allowing each and every instrument plenty of space to be heard without any one aspect overwhelming the other. Sadly this is the only song where the bass really takes center stage, but that’s just because the vast majority of the rest of the music is so heavily guitar-based. Still a nice touch though, and an unexpected one at that.
“Cast in Stone” is definitely the fastest song on the album, but it’s also the one that feels the most like a stereotypical black metal song, albeit with another cool solo and a very strong ending. “Nordanvind” sounds like it was plucked straight out of Anthems of Rebellion and re-recorded with a different vocalist, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it was one of the only songs that did take me out of it a little just because it sounds distractingly like Arch Enemy. Thankfully the penultimate title track brings things right back into pure uncut black metal, and it’s a solid eight-minute ass beating broken up by yet another supremely catchy chorus.
The smart thing to do would have been to end it right then and there as they hold out that final high note and fade into the void, but the final track “Ascension (Episode Four)”, is a two-and-a-half-minute instrumental piece that sounds like some kind of movie soundtrack which should have been the album opener, if anything. It’s a continuation of a trilogy of instrumental tracks from the Darkside album in 1997, but including it here at the very end some 27 years later just seemed like an odd choice that breaks up the otherwise immaculate pacing. Plus, if they’d put it as the opening then I’m sure I would have complained that nobody listens to cinematic album openers anyway. It doesn’t ruin the rest of the album or anything, but it does give off the same vibes as a behind-the-scenes featurette on a DVD that you would watch after you’ve watched the movie itself.
But aside from that small misstep at the very end, otherwise I had a blast listening to this album. I never got tired of it even after listening to it from front to back over and over again, and I for one would love to hear more black metal with this particular flavor. The genre as a whole is cool, don’t get me wrong, but it also tends to fall into a lot of the same tropes, and deviation from the established norms is often looked down upon by the most snobbish of purists (i.e. antisocial, emotionally constipated weirdos who need to touch grass once in a while).
In a microcosm where heavily furrowed brows and sneering faces caked in makeup and fake blood are seen as the gold standard, Necrophobic dare to break the mold by smiling, sticking out their tongues, and just fucking shredding. They are living proof that you can still be all grim and evil and shit but still have fun with it, and your art will not suffer, but actually benefit from it. That’s where thirty years of experience and expertise in your craft will take you if you’ve got a little chutzpah. Take notes, because this is how it’s done.
In the Twilight Grey is available now via Century Media Records
