Artist: Necromaniac
Country: United Kingdom
Label: Invictus Productions / The Ajna Offensive
Formats: LP / CD
Year: 2024
With the band’s 2015-released ‘Morbid Metal’ demo tape and the ‘Subterranean Death Rising’ 7” EP from 2018 Necromaniac already released some snippets of what they were about to do… someday. As Necromaniac is seemingly not a band to take the speedy boarding route. Besides the self-released promo from January 2024 the band needed some seven years to come up with something new, which comes in the form of ‘Sciomancy, Malediction & Rites Abominable’ that is set to be released by both Invictus Productions and The Ajna Offensive early January 2025.
In the meantime vocalist/guitarist Ilia “Thanatophilia R.G.” Rodriguez (Binah, ex-Indesinence, ex-Pantheïst and affiliated with Esoteric and Akercocke) left the band to concentrate on other things. Which means that ‘Sciomancy, Malediction & Rites Abominable’ is sounding quite a tad different from its preceding two recordings. Not so much musically, as most of the bands musical cornerstones are still very much in place, but vocally the band took quite a few steps back. Rodriguez’ shoes have been filled by Carl “C. Howler” Nordblom, most notably known for his work in the overrated Nightbringer. His way inferior vocal delivery comes to surface best on the dreadful ‘Calling For The Shade’ on which the singer that goes under the name of “A Corpse Without Soul” seems to mimic the lamentation of greater gods like Attila Csihar (Mayhem) and Niklas Kvarforth (Shining) in a rather unnatural and forced fashion – indeed, as a corpse without a soul.
On a musical level, the band’s core, a Black/Thrash hybrid with some bits and pieces of old school Possessed/Necrovore, has been left largely untouched over those silent years. But the flow of the album is regularly broken by some oddly placed interludes and doomy pieces in which Nordblom also claims a big role for his bland vocal antics. Although it definitely is too much to say that the album is bad, but compared to the previously demo tape and the 7” EP it is hard to not feel slightly disappointed. Especially when you take the cut-throat competition in this particular musical field in consideration, it might just not be enough to sound somewhere in between old Possessed and (later) Watain or Mayhem. Throwing some Doom into the mix is really not going to be sufficient to really stand out.
Again, not a bad album per se, but I doubt if I would put this on again after I’m done writing this review, let alone spend my hard earned money on. This is the sort of album that, if we would actually grade an album here, would get a 6,5 out of 10: not bad, but not convincing enough to be anything more than just a bit of a middle of the road affair. I rather happily stick with Necromaniac’s first demo tape and 7” EP.
If you had actually listened to the album instead of lazily playing it in the background, you’d know Calling Forth the Shade has a different guest vocalist and isn’t Carl. A vocalist who sounds nothing like Carl and to confuse the two shows zero effort laziness on your part as a reviewer.
Alright, I stand corrected, thanks for pointing that out. But whoever sings, it doesn’t change anything, really. The album is, unfortunately, little more than a somewhat bland bite. I am sorry if mthe review offended you, but that is your own right 🙂