Label - Candlelight
Release Date- 20th August 2021
It should come as no surprise that when a band name has the word Necro in it there is a good chance the music will be fairly dark, so Necronautical which means ‘to explore death’, do not disappoint.
Formed in 2010, Necronautical have built a reputation as one of the most promising acts in the underground black metal scene. BM in the UK is in a great place. For example, Underdark recently released their debut album and are causing quite a stir in the scene and rightly so. It goes to show you don’t have to be born in the Norwegian mountains to play the brooding style of music that your non-metal mates describe as ‘noise’.
Having released their debut Black Sea Misanthropy in 2014, their latest album Slain in the Spirit is released via Candlelight records. Previously the band slapped on the corpse paint (a visual staple within BM), but have now decided to drop the make up to throw the shackles off of being tainted as a straight up BM band. And it shows with the band providing elements of death and black metal on this release.
Opener ‘Ritual_Recursion’ has shades of Fleshgod Apocalypse, especially with the female vocals providing back up to the harrowed growls.
‘Occult Ecstatic Indoctrination’ has more of the extreme metal grounding , with a slow burning intro with guitar passages similar to Behemoth it then bursts into blast beats with pinch harmonics from the guitars, followed by a face melter of a solo. The use of subtle keys in the background add an extra element to this grandiose track. Coming in at nearly eight minutes long the band show off their song writing capabilities here to great effect, numerous solos are thrown in to make the song more expansive.
The band explore the realms of darkness which is very fitting for the style of music they create. The melodic sections on this album are stunning and create such an emotional atmosphere throughout it’s like being stuck in a trance. It’s no mean feat to go from tremolo picking into a mellow passage that makes you feel like you have been transported into ice capped mountains, but Necronautical have it nailed.
Other stand out tracks include ‘Hypnagogia’ with a stomping outro riff with proggy elements to it, ‘Death Magick Triumphant’ with a nod to Emperor style vocals and of course the cover of Slayer’s ‘Disciple’. Yes, the anticipation of waiting for ‘Disciple’ to be heard caused great anxiety but not to fret, it’s totally worth the wait, played at a ridiculous pace and synths thrown on top they do no disservice to this ‘classic’ track at all.
Beautiful is not a term widely used when it comes to black metal, more commonly used is depressing, dark and church burny. But what Necronautical have created here is something that comprises the best elements from the extreme end of the metal spectrum, coupled with mesmerising melodic sections to create a triumphant album.
9/10
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