Double Review: Necrosexual & Karloff
From the gutter to the grave.
I often find myself looking at albums in pairs for one reason or another, and for Pennsylvania’s Necrosexual and Germany’s Karloff, the reasons just kept piling up. Both use similar ingredients, albeit to quite different ends, both have similar weaknesses, and they almost mirror each other structurally. And both album titles start with the letter R! I had seen enough and decided to do both in one go.
Necrosexual – Road to Rubble
Independent | Febraury 27
If the band name wasn’t enough of an indication, song titles like “Brimstone Brothel,” “Lubricator,” and “Hard Leather Woman” should tell you that we are firmly in sleaze territory here. And if this kind of hellish horniness makes you think of Venom, you’re on the right track. While the opener starts with a surprisingly bouncy drum beat, it’s not long before the mental and musical influence of various early forebears of black metal becomes apparent. “I’m perfectly at home in the gutter,” monsieur Necrosexual himself tells us in a voice not dissimilar to that of Cronos, and thus, the tone is set.
While the mid-tempo moments of the Brits—seasoned with a bit of Hellhammer here and there—play an important role in the sound, Necrosexual are by no means averse to speed. Frequent tempo changes considerably liven things up in the opener and in “Brimstone Brothel,” which briefly busts out the blast beats.
On top of that, the track introduces the organ [Phrasing! -Roldy], which will make appearances throughout the record, injecting the proceedings with a theatrical vibe, such as when it picks up the foreboding main riff of “Kiss the Knife” just before the vocals come in with a falsetto. It’s one of the album’s early “hell yeah” moments, particularly if you were waiting for King Diamond to enter the lineup of ’80s role models (and if you’ve seen the picture on the Bandcamp page, you were definitely waiting for it). Followed by “Lubrictaor,” which keeps the tempo consistently high, these back-to-back bangers are an absolute highlight here.
After an interlude that, to the band’s credit, doesn’t feel like filler, the second half of the album slacks a little bit. While the quasi-title track is fun, “Damned Romance” and “Nocturnal Ignition” boast slower tempos and less variation, so much so that they occasionally sound lethargic. The former’s guitar antics and glam rock parody chorus are just about enough to keep me away from the skip button, but the latter has no such saving grace. Luckily, the closer is a return to form with more interesting songwriting, including a brief bridge featuring an honest-to-god honky-tonk piano and a final crescendo that closes things out in style.
If an idiosyncratic brand of randy, goth-leaning speed metal sounds good to you, I think you’ll have plenty of fun once Road to Rubble rolls around in February.
Pre-order here, where you can also get all four of their releases together for a lean 20 bucks.
Karloff – Revered by Death
Dying Victims Productions | January 23
Our second subject for today is an altogether darker affair. No King Diamond, no organ, no whimsy. Instead, Karloff double down on the Hellhammer and Celtic Frost influence, particularly in the first half of the record. That means less sonic variation, but they make up for it with a compelling kind of primitive brutality (and a couple of hearty “Ough!”s).
Right out the gate, the opening riff of “Pessimistic Soaring” sounds like it would feel right at home on the Morbid Tales EP. A guitar lead with a phaser effect (or maybe it’s a flanger? I can never tell) foreshadows the album’s subtle death rock vibes before the reverbed vocals begin their imposing bellow. While commanding, they are thankfully integrated well into the mix; Karloff’s grimy and roughshod sound is clearly carefully designed.
After two tracks dominated by grooving mid-tempo, the album hits a literal speed bump with “When the Flames Devour You All,” easily its dreariest offering. Together with the ensuing interlude track, it’s the closest we get to the horror movie vibes that the band name promises (at least musically; lyrically, we’ve already been to the grave in track 2). Alas, while thick with atmosphere, neither of them do anything all too interesting throughout their combined 10 minutes, and when 10 minutes is a third of your album, that’s a bit of a problem.
However, great rewards are in store for those who stick around, because the second half is where things really come to (un)life. “Prince of Parasites” is a highlight with its higher tempo and shockingly bright garage punk riff. The stomping beat of “Regicide,” each of its booming hits interspersed with a playful open hi hat, is way more fun than you might have expected at this point. And while you may wonder what the hell “Crown Cult Fate” is supposed to mean, I’m sure you have no difficulty comprehending an all-out punk rock rager when you hear one.
Closing things out after this terrific trifecta of tracks is “Elisabetha’s Revenge,” which makes perhaps the most use of dynamics with its surprisingly quiet bridge part lead by a jazzy shuffle. Before getting too lost in experimentation though, this ramps back up to a final chorus before the song ends without wasting any time. It’s a more than worthy culmination for this brief trip to the cemetery.
If you like your black metal punk hybrids grimy as fuck, yet thoughtfully constructed, Revered by Death is a must.
Digital and physical copies are available right here, right now.
