Recently I came across the first EP, released on cassette tape, of Italian Death Metal band Necrogore and although it was only the band’s debut I was pretty convinced. While there are so many bands that follow the path of rather simple Death Metal in the Swedish tradition, it is not given to all of them to sound fresh and effective in the same way. I compared them to Nominon and Interment in my review, but they evidently disagree with that themselves, but whatever you will hear in them, Necrogore certainly is a joy of recognition…
Hey there, I’d like to welcome you to the pages of The Whispering Darkness. Although some of you have been active in different bands before, for me Necrogore came out of nothing. What made you start this band?
It all started from Chris in 2021, when he asked Lucas if he’d been interested in forming a brand new death metal band, founded on speed and ignorance, sounding minimal but ass-kicking. We were already good friends and fans of the genre, and as in that moment none of us was playing with the respective ex-bands, it has been the right occasion to start Necrogore. Moreover, extreme music was disappearing in the surroundings. Many bands were quit and others were not active anymore… On the other side we were still angry and willing to play. Alex (also a long time friend) in the while was working on his solo project and collaborating with local bands as a live-member. So Chris and Lucas proposed him to join Necrogore as he was a good musician and also a good friend.
Picking up on that opening question… If the information is serving me right, two of the three of you have been playing in different bands before starting Necrogore. Can you talk a little about that musical background and what did you take from that into the sound of Necrogore?
Correct. Each one had his own band and it also happened to share the same stage, but at a certain point everyone had his band fucked up. Chris and Lucas played together in their first band called “Resuscitated” and lately with “Slowly Suffering” until its third demo. The sound recalls Necrogore, even because both bands were moved by the same intensions. Alex had a heavy/thrash past instead, with his former band “Grim”, but he got immediately into the genre, giving lot of personality to the band.
Let’s start talking about that sound. Obviously, ‘Digging From Below’ sounds like a pretty nostalgic ride through the HM2 landscape. The Swedish buzzsaw is in good hands and it is played passionately. This seems like a genre that has always been close to your heart, doesn’t it?
Yes, the Swedish death metal sound is the one we prefer the most. We of course like the classic records released by the historical Sunlight Studios, or the mythical Gorysound/Unisound Studios. HM2 is the law for us, but this small detail apart, we are fans of the whole death metal scene in general and we also listen to various subgenres from extreme metal to rock. Musically we are particularly inspired by the European scene of the early 90’s, Italy included!
The EP has been out for a couple of weeks ago, so with the music now materialized on cassette tape: how does that feel and are you satisfied with the result? Is there anything that you would do differently or have learned from for the success of ‘Digging From Below’?
We are satisfied about this EP, and probably we could not do any better. We had the opportunity to record the EP at “Mara’s Cave” studios, with Manuele Marani, a very metal specialized technician here in Marche region. Results are awesome. We’re receiving a very positive response, obtaining a bunch of good feedbacks from abroad. Obviously, there is still a lot to do and a lot to improve, as for anything by the way.
A couple of days ago I have reviewed your debut EP, ‘Digging From Below’ and I was surprised by the good quality of the material. It doesn’t at all sound like a band that is just releasing its first recording, how did you prepare?
We really appreciate you liked it. We did not prepared particularly, it all came in a really spontaneous and instinctive way, maybe because we had similar experiences in the past, so we have been more advantaged comparing to a band at its very first beginning.
What I particularly liked about ‘Digging From Below’ is that although it sounds really familiar and there is no need to reach for originality wins, it sounds way more fresh than the average Rogga Johansson snoozers. In my review, I compared you to Nominon and Interment, how do you see this yourself?
We’re big fans of Nominon and Interment (hoping that Johan Jansson gets something new out as soon as possible) but the comparison is not really right in our opinion. We keep it more easy, minimal than those, even in the lyrics and themes we are very different. We however accept this comparison as it is a real good compliment!
‘Digging From Below’ was released a couple of weeks ago, so far only on tape. Are there any plans to release this EP on other formats?
Our intention is to release it in all the supports, so CD and vinyl too. We wrote to different labels before uploading the songs online, but sadly we had no response. As a new band we could have it done by ourselves, self-producing the EP, but at the moment we have no budget to arrange it. So, to date, it is only available in cassette. If any label should be interested on releasing/re-printing our work it would be cool for us.
You have chosen to release the tape through Wrong Disk Records, a rather new label that was yet unknown to me. From what I have seen it is mainly aiming for Grindcore on various formats, how did your collaboration come about?
He is a good friend of us and also a big fan of the band, and at the very first time he saw Necrogore live he asked us to do something together, and we couldn’t say no. Moreover, he has been very disposable, also in organizing gigs, and collaborating with him has been a reciprocal support.
Although Necrogore is a relatively new band, you have already played a few shows. I have seen you have supported/played with bands like Hatred and Burial. How were those first stage experiences with Necrogore?
Very good! Since the first live show we saw the audience moshing without ever hearing the songs. Burial is one of the most valid Italian bands of the last decade, and live it is even better. Hatred is now a historical band in our region, which we appreciate since ever. It has been a great pleasure to share the stage with the guys and we hope to meet them onstage again soon.
In recent months I have interviewed a few Italian Death Metal bands and I asked them about their views on your native Italian scene. So, what about you? What is your opinion on the Italian metal scene in general and Death Metal specifically?
We are in metal music from more than 25 years, and we can say that the metal scene in Italy of the last years got worse. In the past it all was a bit better. We won’t be the usual nostalgic ones, today internet and social media simplified many things and communication is more easy and fast, but at the same time many clubs which regularly hosted metal concerts shut down, and places where it is still possible to organize such shows are really few. When we were teenagers we saw bands like Malevolent Creation, Vader, Deströyer 666, Sadus, Disgorge (Mex) few miles from our home, important events took place in each weekend, and in the surroundings it was full of live clubs. Unfortunately today there’s no more left, and such things will not happen again. The only luck we have is that an handful of true fans keep the scene alive, organizing events in the most unreal and crap places, with big sacrifices but much satisfaction. Playing extreme music is harder and harder. Beside this, there’s friendship among the bands which truly believe in their projects, and in the last time there is more support to each other, and recently different bands finally reached a good response at international level. Concerning the death metal scene, in Italy we can actually vaunt to have very valid bands, of which many names which made history as Electrocution, Corpsefucking Art, Distruzione, Mortuary Drape, Valgrind, Antropofagus, Sadist, Devangelic, Burial, Daemoniac.
Let’s end the interview with a nice and cliché question: when you have to flee for those zombies on the cover of ‘Digging From Below’ and you can take only five records with you… which ones would you take with you? And, of course, why?
To be honest we all agree that “in case of zombies” we’d not run, as it is very likely that those would have more brain than actual average people living at our time. It could be a good occasion to step up the company. Anyway, in case of real emergency picking up 5 titles would be a good challenge, as there would be too many to save. If we’d should do it in a hurry we’d say:
CARNAGE “DARK RECOLLECTIONS” it basically is perfection, a record which had bad luck at its time, but is considered a masterpiece today. It contains the essence of swedish death metal and has a devastating sound. A single album wich worths as having 10 death metal albums of that time.
VOMITORY “REDEMPTION” as one of our favorite records of a contemporary and still active band of which sound and style have been big influences for ourselves and Necrogore.
REGURGITATE “EFFORTLESS REGURGITATION OF BRIGHT RED BLOOD” as it would be the perfect music score in case we’d be catched by the zombies, while they bite our heads, rip our bellies, pulling out our interiors. A great play for such a special moment.
DISSECTION “STORM OF THE LIGHT’S BANE”, as it is an album discovered in highschool times, in the middle of a black metal period, which opened the gate to a new face of extreme metal. Its melodies and cutting riffs recalling thrash and heavy metal literally had ruined our brain and the speakers of our old stereo.
DEATH “SYMBOLIC”, to pick up a 90’s non-European band. Jokes apart, it is a massive record which brings death metal to a different concept of “extreme”, and easily competes with the most high standards of metal music, as the progressive scene.
Alright, thank you for your time and introducing Necrogore to us. I would like to give you the opportunity to close off this interview with granting you the last words…
Thank you for giving us such a opportunity, it has been a pleasure to have this chat with you! We salute the Whispering Darkness’ readers and hope to see you all soon in our future gigs!
