Review: Necrambulant – Upheaval of Malignant Necrambulance

February 27, 2025

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One of many, many words that jump into my head when I think of our old friend slam death is “unapologetic.” From deranged musical motifs to depraved lyrical concepts, it’s hard to imagine a band like Analepsy or Ecchymosis prefacing their murder music with any disclaimers or caveats. As a result of this, I was shocked and aghast with the EPK I received from Phoenix slammers Necrambulant, which started with a band quote justifying the direction of their previous EP, A Feast of Festering Flesh, and assuring fans that Upheaval of Malignant Necrambulance would be a return to form. It’s certainly a jarring start to a presser, but one that caught my interest—was there a massive backlash to what ultimately was a love letter to slam death metal’s earliest days? Was there a mob of angry Necrambulant fans demanding the return of overdubs and tighter drum tracks?

In the effort of “journalistic integrity” and what my doctors like to call “riff addiction,” I decided to pair my listening of this newest full-length with the Feast EP. It’s certainly a less sophisticated (lol) and sloppier breed of brutal death metal, hearkening back to demos from bands like 420, Internal Bleeding, and Necrocide. I can see how a listener weened off of Waking the Cadaver or Katalepsy might not find much to love in the 6 tracks on Feast, but it’s a perfectly serviceable exploration of the genre’s roots. It’s a bit lacking in terms of heft and songcraft, but I hardly see how an experiment release such as this would cause enough of an uproar to justify a profuse apology from the band:

We think our new full-length will be well received by fans of our earlier work. We put out our somewhat experimental EP back in 2022 to a very mixed bag of reviews… But with the new album being more of a return to form, our hopes are that it will be more well-received among fans who have been with us since the beginning as well as something fresh for our newer listeners to enjoy as well.

Still billing themselves as “inhuman slam grind,” the Arizona 4-piece have made a framing device clear: Upheaval of Malignant Necrambulance is meant to be a return to form, inoculating new and old fans alike to the “true” Necrambulant sound. From this presser to the album’s almost-eponymous title, this record clearly is meant to re-establish the band’s DNA. If this is to be taken as the mission statement, the formula of Necrambulant is one any New Standard Elite fanboy will be familiar with. The various songs contained within Upheaval are loud, unrelenting death metal compositions with a sound somewhere between the original blueprints of Cannibal Corpse and Suffocation and the new school of gore-ish degeneracy a la Abominable Putridity and Cerebral Incubation. As for the “grind” part of “slam-grind,” I’m not sure I’m picking up on anything remotely similar to any grindcore I’ve heard. The band blasts away with reckless abandon at points, but it’s not close to the blistering speeds or sonic profiles of even the most slam-adjacent goregrind acts.

Rather, the stylings of Necrambulant are, if anything, a bit generic on this prodigal full-length (albeit quite skillfully done). While the resulting release is a satisfying listen with strong rhythmic sensibilities, I can’t help but feel like the band is playing things a bit safe here. If I had to guess, the band threw caution to the wind on Feast and wanted to re-establish some of their cred with fans. My pompous ass says: Fuck the fans! Any slam band worth their salt in 2025 should be using any opportunity to push the envelope and stand out in a sea of largely similar acts. While Upheaval is near-objectively a tighter release with more confidence and professionalism than Feast, I hope that Necrabulant maintains a healthy sense of adventure in their songwriting going forward.

This all feels very harsh and I do feel bad for pushing this expectation on what is an above-average, fun death metal group that manages to make me feel something. What’s on display here is nasty and forceful enough to win over the Devourment fans in the audience and it’s decently clear that ambition isn’t the end goal here – the end goal is either grossing you out or giving you a good time. Honestly, I can’t think of a more altruistic goal in such strange times. Necrambulant is a good band with a lot of room for growth, which, at the end of the day, is a pretty great spot to be at.