Necronoclast – Ashes (2011)

As a new addition into the good but nothing out of the ordinary category, today we have Necronoclast’s “Ashes”. This one man band from the UK delivers solid Black Metal tunes that are soon forgotten due to their lack of originality. While the atmosphere is tick and evil (and all that shit), there is a certain familiarity about it that will leave you looking for something else.

Staring with the mid-paced “Ghostways”, the evidence of old Burzum, Darkthrone, etc is present but not quite compelling. Greg Edwards does at solid job in handling all instruments, but the music feels devoid of originality. While sometimes is good that one person handles everything, many times the lack of inspiration completely kills the flow of said releases.

Varying between mid-paced to hellishly fast songs, Necronoclast creates a very disconnected release that feels like listening to an album on shuffle (we did check our settings in case you wondered). Songs like “Serpents” are very powerful and crushing but the drumming sounds extremely programmed, and this for us is a deal breaker when it comes to current age technology.

Our favorite song has to be “Ashes”, an 8 minute excruciating track of slow and painful Black Metal. If the whole album was like this, we would have given it 100 points. The rest of the album songs are easily forgotten in time and will make you wonder if they are all stitched together from parts of one or 2 good songs.

We have to say we expected more from Necronoclast. The band creates an effective atmosphere and that is as far as it goes, everything else is your typical run-of-the-mil Black Metal that most kiddies whip out on their garages over the weekend.

Release: February 22nd, 2011

Country: UK