To the Depths We Descend...

Greek black metal legends Necromantia are back with their newest album, an offering to the darkness in memory of the late and great Baron Blood!

Starting off with a rather unsettling introduction, it is a weird feeling that new Necromantia music lies in wait. Hopefully a positive closing chapter in one of Greek black metals' most influential stories. A potent cascade of marvellously melodic extremity fires into life with a rejuvenated energy that is powered by ferocious drum work that is utterly insane while the majestic guitars (yes guitars, for the first time since the 1990 promo tape) charge into the vicious vocals with a potent darkness. Immediately the ethereal and yet demonic sound of the titans is restored to its full glory. Now, before I go any further, the bass sound is obviously a key component to Necromantia, in this case a cleaner, warm and yet crushing tone delivers those stoic low-end lines (without the 8-string in this instance). That rocking Greek rhythm is certainly here which has always captivated me in regard to their country’s signature sound alongside the absolutely chilling melodies that are chosen. In these opening moments the true essence of Necromantia has returned in what can be called a triumphant tribute to a legacy of utmost importance. Let us hope this glory is maintained going onwards…

In the twilight of the opening moments, the dynamics develop into a more brooding, gorgeously orchestrated nature which is sombre and yet still with that devilish power lurking in all of its strength. Though funereal would perhaps imply too much doom to be apt, there is a certainly mournful note that lingers in even the more aggressive sections. This contradiction is delivered successfully and appropriately not only to convey the huge array of moods that Necromantia’s music has always carried but also to allow grieving for Baron Blood to be heard in the songs themselves. Whenever the dust seems to settle, they choose that moment to strike with sweeping layers of stunning string work and bombastic drums which fall like artillery alongside some subtle synth hits to give a marvellously orchestrated and yet no less fearsome soundscape. One cannot flaw the diversity in moods, atmospheres or indeed the musical execution. Nor the production which is utterly astounding in how many elements are conveyed so beautifully and yet without feeling polished to the point of sterility.

The complexity we see showcased here is never obnoxious but allows for a richly textured, multi-faceted and incredibly well-composed adventure that is not afraid to utilise resplendent melodies and atmospherics in juxtaposition to the more typically violent, chaotic and savage elements of black metal. In fact this is an example of a record that does justice to most fields of the genre and is not afraid to take inspiration from outside either, with a largely classical execution on many components of the album. The tribal rhythms and innovative musicianship is absolutely excellent and for a band with such a recognisable sound to still be unpredictable is equally impressive. This is certainly a contemplative listen, a time for reflection and to join the band in an intimate celebration of their legacy and that of Baron Blood. In this they have achieved closure and completion of their grandiose body of work.

Necromantia close the book on their hugely important career in black metal which cannot be overstated. In these last moments the 6 wonderful new pieces and 2 re-visits to classic pieces are tied into a singular and linear experience of pure black metal majesty that is a success in ending such a spectacular story with an awe-inspiring finale.

Written for www.nattskog.wordpress.com

"To the Depths We Descend...", Necromantia's newest album, is a bit controversial. On the one hand, you really want to listen to the new work of the Greek black metal legend, on the other hand, it is clear that it's not those times now, ah, for someone any recording without Baron Blood will not be what they would like to receive. Yes, to be honest, we were very afraid of being disappointed too. Well, listening to "To the Depths We Descend...", we can conclude that Magus Wampyr Daoloth did not set himself the goal of repeating the classics, his own classics. At least the main and primary goal. Right, that would be inappropriate. Necromantia's new release is an attempt to create something fresh and new on an old foundation. The Magus, with the assistance of George Emmanuel and Yiannis Votsis, did not create another masterpiece in the history of black metal, but at least it's interesting to listen to.

It is beyond dispute that this is a very intensive album. "To the Depths We Descend..." is equally filled with vibrant guitar riffs and pompous and dark keyboard parts, right, they are to be expected from Necromantia. Blastbeat-laden sections are interspersed with groovy mid-tempo insertions and almost ambient pieces, so you really will not be bored at all. At the same time, the structure of the songs cannot be called sophisticated, if only because, as the very first song "Daemonocentric" demonstrates, the main riff is often repeated throughout the composition. This is almost a rule for the album. The songs are not too long, nothing in them is dragged on, they even end unexpectedly for the listener.

From a musical point of view, Necromantia effectively exploit the patented techniques of Greek black metal, and equally of Swedish black metal ("And the Shadows Wept..." and "Eldritch"). But everything is interweaved in a very original way. The material is really perceived as fresh and vivid, in tune with the current state of affairs in the black metal scene, however, it seems that Necromantia don't risk using the means of modern black metal. For example, the apparent dissonance is used only once throughout the album, in "Inferno". By the way, perhaps this song can be called the best on "To the Depths We Descend...", there is a fraught atmosphere here, some sick suspense can be felt in it.

It is found interestingly that the palm muting technique is an essential component of the new Necromantia music. Palm-muted riffs, often on the verge of thrash metal, are present in the album's four main tracks ("Daemonocentric", "And the Shadows Wept...", "Inferno" and "Eldritch"). Palm-muted downstroke produces anger and groove, so this rather unexpected move brings new feeling to Necromantia on "To the Depths We Descend...". The most striking example is "And the Shadows Wept...": the opening section is a classic template from Necromantia, it contains tribal ritualistic drums and pounding bass, however, in its development, the song does not sink into the Past thanks to the palm muted rhythm part and mystical solo that is gradually creeping. "To the Depths We Descend..." is generally notable for its solos, perhaps their piercing vibe is a point of contact between the old school and modern sound that is characteristic of this album.

Unfortunately, the same, i. e. "new life", cannot be said about another no less striking example – about the last piece, the instrumental "To the Depths We Descend...". At first we seem to be dealing with a "modernized" Necromantia, well, studio facilities clearly not from the 90s were used for such a mystical orchestration. Suddenly the saxophone enters, much like in "Scarlet Evil Witching Black" (1995). And this deja vu spoils everything. The new Necromantia crashes exactly where it tries to repeat itself old. Ah, perhaps it would be better to use shofar, or something like that for this piece. "To the Depths We Descend..." turned out to be somewhat contrived, in addition more pompous than gloomy. Another instrumental on this album, "Give the Devil His Due", is more successful with its dark climax, a burst of dark energy.

The additional songs "Lord of the Abyss" and "The Warlock" are modern versions of songs from the debut album "Crossing the Fiery Path" (1993). With these bonuses, the new Necromantia stepped onto thin ice. Well, in the vast majority of cases musicians believe that they give a "second life" to their classical song by re-recording it, while fans rarely sanctify the new version, the old one will always be better for them, even if it had some (technical) pain points... Who knows, maybe Magus Wampyr Daoloth made these MMXXI-versions more for himself and Baron Blood than for listeners.

Compared to the new material, both songs sound rather dry, as if they left their essentials in the 90s. Well, at least they show us that if Necromantia decided to record a new album in a retro manner, they would sound pretty pitiable. The Magus has correctly defined the strategy for the new album, i. e. "something fresh and new on an old foundation", but it was not followed in full spirit. That is why the feeling of contradiction does not disappear while listening to "To the Depths We Descend...". So listen to either new songs without bonuses, or old songs in their classic versions. Mixing them is not recommended. Actually, this was the summary.

The Metal Observer

"Farewell my brother, farewell my friend
Ride the dragon in the center of the abyss
Your soul is now free”.

Wow, these are quite sad words when you know about the story of Necromantia. You may know that Baron Blood, the founding member of Necromantia (aside of Magus Wampyr Daoloth) died in 2019 and so the band has decided to record a farewell album called To The Depths We Desscend... to pay a final tribute to him. This is a really tragic story, especially if you think about the fact that Necromantia is one of the originals of the Greek black metal scene. But let's put these sad and nostalgic feelings aside for a few minutes and concentrate on the thing that should be in the center – the music.

Necromantia have recorded eight tracks from which two are re-recorded from the 1993 debut album Crossing The Fiery Path. These tracks are 'Lord Of The Abyss' and 'The Warlock'. All tracks are lovely arranged and very melodic as we were always used from the band. Though the black metal influences are clearly in the foreground of the compositions, you can often find classic heavy metal riffs and even some real classical music arrangements in the songs, too. The band creates a very dense atmosphere through the mid- or fast-paced riffs and the quite impulsive basslines. Often, they create a very majestic atmosphere through the epic drums and the echoing guitars which are combined with real bombastic keyboard sounds. Even if they only use keyboards and bass, like in 'Give The Devil His Due' they create a somehow oppressive mood in the song. Each track has its own character, so you always find new facets in their music and every listen brings you more into their farewell album. When there are pure keyboard passages, Necromantia create an atmosphere like in old horror movies which create a creepy, gloomy mood I would say. You always fear that something evil is going to happen very soon. At least I have this feeling when listening to it now for the x time. Maybe I shouldn't listen to it at night.

Well, if I had to recommend some songs, which is really hard for me because all tracks are outstanding, I would say that 'And The Shadows Wept' is a very remarkable song because of all the arrangements and the great break in the last third of the song. 'Eldritch' is another cool song because here the bands play at a very fast speed, something that doesn't happen that often and is real great black metal performance. Also, the aforementioned two old songs that were re-recorded are great, maybe even better than the 1993 versions. But also, all the other tracks (yes, also the instrumentals) are very good and each track is worth listening to.

Well, now it's time to say goodbye to Necromantia, a band that was always a true companion in my metal history. It was a great time with you, may you rest in peace, Baron Blood!!!! About my rating, there can only be one score (due to the fact that To The Depths We Descend... is their best output in my eyes and there won't be another one).

Rating: 10 out of 10

Originally written for metalbite.com

Not gonna lie, the first impressions of this album seemed disastrous, first with the song "Inferno" which was the anticipation we had, showed us a generic sound that seemed to indicate a loss in the originality of the sound and the proposals of Necromantia, those keyboards in the middle of the song seemed more like a sad attempt to show that they still have musical authenticity. Even on top of that, the album opens with "Daemonocentric" which is along with the already mentioned song, the most simplistic of the album, with this I don't mean that they are bad songs by themselves, in fact the riffs are quite good and the compositions are in constant movement so they don't get boring (besides they are not very long) but the keyboard parts sound like they are implemented in a forced way, so they drop this couple of songs with a style that when is fueled by the sound of a guitar doesn't distance itself from a sound similar to modern black metal bands like Watain and unfortunately even if they do it well I still see this as something negative because I must demand creativity from this band.

Luckily the album doesn't go the way I expect after the first impressions, "And the Shadows Wept..." opens with a powerful bass sound, not in vain this is the song dedicated to Baron Blood, along with autoreferential lyrics we find a slow theme that goes through different phases, very different from each other, until reaching an anthemic final moment that achieves his goal by transmitting that emotion both in the music and in the vocal part. The only problem with the song? It should have been the final track of the album.

Nevertheless, it is impossible to deny that the influence of Baron Blood was very big, mainly because of the distinctive sound that he brought, but it seems that the Greeks were short of ideas because without the two re-recorded songs we find six songs and only half an hour of album, in this time luckily we can already find great moments like the above-mentioned "And the Shadows Wept..." or the dark and orchestral "Eldritch" that, despite of not having that 8 string bass sound, could perfectly pass as a composition of the famous "Scarlet Evil Witching Black" and personally is a song that I like more than most of the catalogue of the mentioned album. But without a doubt my favorite moment of the 30 minutes of original music of this album is found in the homonymous instrumental that in my opinion gives the best use that Necromantia has given to the sax instrument in all their career, the way in which it appears is incredibly clean and unexpected, reinforcing the impact that already has thanks to the extremely beautiful melody that it carries.

Yeah, I would be lying if I said that most of the great moments are not supported by old elements already used in their discography and they can be criticized for that lack of originality, but I don't think it's the right thing to do in this case, this is a farewell album, I think that the look to the past and the self-references here are more than justified, at the end of the day it is to revive in the most part what made them great and distinctive, so I think that the use of those elements already familiar to their public in the original music is correct as a tribute, however I emphasize the ORIGINAL music because at first I was not at all convinced by the idea of the re-recorded songs.

So, this section that will only deal with aspects of the last two songs is going to occupy a big part of the review, this is because I have changed my opinion several times regarding these songs, but I want to make clear that my evaluation of this album is as a total taking into account all the songs, so, although I dedicate a space to the re-recorded songs, I don't differentiate it from the rest of the album. Well, to begin with "The Warlock" is my favorite Necromantia song so the idea of it sounding without the distinctive 8-string bass seemed like sacrilege to me, plus I didn't even understand why they had to remake classic songs when they weren't going to be any better since the guitar sound would make them sound more basic and boring, I wondered why they couldn't re-record demo songs from their early days and that's when I realized, those songs that I enjoy so much when I listen to "Crossing the Fiery Path" are still re-recorded songs from the early days of Necromantia, so if when they did it for their debut this was valid, for this occasion it's valid too. Besides, the new interpretations sound fucking great, although the sound is not so charismatic the riffs of the songs are good enough to be just as enjoyable. In some key moments they still give relevance to the bass sound when they consider it is necessary (although not as many times as I would like since the bass sound in the 2:20 of "Lord of the abyss" is too good to be lost) Also as the aspects of the production have improved so they gain a lot in areas such as the vocal performance, I could say without problems that of all the versions of "The Warlock" this is the one I like the most in terms of vocals. The only downside I would put to this new version is the interlude, not because of its existence in itself since I personally like it a lot, but because they had the opportunity to do something new in it and surprise me again as when I listened to it in their debut the first time, but they went to the easy and comfortable way doing the same so the immersion in my case is lost, but otherwise to me is still one of the high points of the album as the interpretation at all levels is great and the riffs with the sound of the guitar sound amazing.

Although some songs are weak and it doesn't have so many original ideas I think it's a more than worthy farewell album that shows us in many aspects the best side of Necromantia's immortal legacy, we can only thank the great moments that these musicians have given to us and try to keep alive the spirit of one of the most original black metal bands of all times. Farewell Necromantia... The abyss awaits you.


Time has decayed my body
But my will remains the same
So I'll scream the ultimate spell
And power flows again in my empty shell