Necroripper | ‘Necrometal’

All the way from the molten climes of Chile beckon dubiously-monickered black thrashers Necroripper.

They’ve arrived with their debut album – wait for it -’Necrometal’.

While South America has a long, impressive history of vomiting up ugly and barbaric heavy metal, these fellas seem to have their sights set on the opposite side of the globe. This is black thrash Aussie style, so rather than the rotten n’ rough approach of Sarcofago, Mystifier et al we are treated to a rather more slick affair a la Destroyer 666 and Razor of Occam.

And it works well enough. The band are tight as hell, no doubt, and there is a satisfying dollop of dirt in their bass-heavy assault.

They even manage to throw a decent handful of catchy riffs and manic solos over the impressive roar of the drums but there is something missing, an element to keep you coming back for more.

That element is crucial – identity.

This just sounds a bit safe and interchangeable with any number of bands on the go. Maybe it’s the fact that they are so tight and proficient that is stopping them from reaching those blasting whirlwind fever pitches that you’d hope for from this style.

If they could even drop the pace a bit and muster up something more epic and mighty sounding they could be on to a winner.

Please don’t get me wrong. Songs like the ridiculously titled ‘Raping your Rest’ and ‘The Premonitions About His Final Hour’ bare a set of pretty threatening dentures, but it feels like they are being kept on a firm leash.

And as one song starts to bleed into the next it feels like they have few enough ideas of their own to bring to the mix to get the weary headbanger banging.

Compared to their rather more primitive and explosive countrymen, Communion, or the atomic raucousness of Finnish bastards, Neutron Hammer, this sounds a little lacking in bite.

It’s hard to pin down exactly why as they sound like they are giving it loads and I imagine these songs would really come to life kicked out in a shitty little venue with a hundred people going berzerk, but as it stands I’m finding it hard to really get excited by much here.

The artwork has a pleasing old school look about it, depicting the grimmest of reapers raising spirits from their graves with some alluring notes sawn out on a bone violin. It’s pretty cool.

All in all this record is aimed squarely at those who worship helplessly at the altar of black thrash.

In that regard it is perfectly fine, but it has little enough else to make it a worthwhile recommendation for the more casual listener.

Not at all bad, just not great either.

2.8/5 – Andrew Cunningham ::: 12/07/12