Neurotic Necrotic

And he we are once more with another album from the motherland of all that is great metal, Sweden, this time it's Putrified, the one man band operated by A. Death and his second offering to the death metal underground, "Neurotic Necrotic." With so many great death metal releases out nowadays, it's become increasingly difficult to stand out and make a name and the usual best way to do that is by adding a twist to the traditional sound, but Putrified would have none of that whatsoever and the result is an album that is drenched in old-school Swedeath worship.

The familiar guitar tone is present on "Neurotic Necrotic," though not as heavy as others. The tone is perfect though for the midpaced madness that occurs on this record. Just about every song on here follows the same structure of mixing midpaced tempos with much faster riffs that range from ripping death metal tremolo sections or some thrashier riffs. The opening song, (the title track) kicks this album off with a nice tremolo burst before the pace picks up to much faster speeds before leveling you with a heavy midpaced riff that is eventually followed with the familiar growls of A. Death.

There are some extra little pieces of traditional Swedeath sound that find their way onto this album, as well as some more doomy elements. Tracks like "A Chamber Beneath" and "The Return of Ashes" feature their fair share of sludgy, downtuned chords that just creep along as well as some doomy melodies that wouldn't sound unfamiliar at all to any fan of Asphyx or Amorphis. The dark melodic sections on the song "They Speak" are also top notch and really give the song an evil feel that looms over the song and adds a brilliant uneasiness to the overall atmosphere. The bass also gets some moments to shine and boy is it absolutely heavy, especially on the song "These Forsaken Lands," which also happens to be the best song on "Neurotic Necrotic" with its stellar midpaced riffs that stomp the listener throughout.

Honestly, nothing more really needs to be said about this record. It's not the best death metal album to come from Sweden in the 21st century, nor is absolutely mindblowing but it is a fun listen that any fan of old-school, rotting, filthy death metal could enjoy.

Highlights
"The Land of Pharoes"
"These Forsaken Lands"
"The Return of Ashes"

Originally written for Skull Fracturing Metal Zine.
http://skullfracturingmetal.blogspot.com

Mostly the bands of the modern metal world can be divided into two groups: Traditional revivalist bands and modern bands. You see tons of bands that do nothing but copy their favourite bands from the 80's, and especially death and thrash metal have had a huge resurgence in the scene these last few years.

Old school Swedish death metal is no exception. There are numerous great bands who have their inspirational roots in the old Swedish bands like Grave, Dismember and Entombed, but of course there are also a lot of really mediocre bands, and even some that downright tarnish the otherwise good name of Old School Swedish Death Metal.

Putrified is more or less one of those bands. For a band that has a demo, an EP and now two full length albums on it's record you would expect them to have found a good and solid recipe for metal, but unfortunately the one man project that is A.Death's Putrified is a sad husk of uncreative 80's worship.

Allow me to elaborate; Other than being nothing out of the ordinary, "Neurotic Necrotic" from 2012 is a collection of not-too-thoroughly worked through tracks of varying quality. The guitars are way too fuzzy for a non-stoner band and doesn't leave much room for aggression or the morbid power that imbued the old death metal classics. Some of the tracks can have good bits, like a nice riff or something like that, but ultimately Neurotic Necrotic lacks flow and a climax. It's like the songs individually and the album as a whole never really get to their respective climaxes, and that's what I meant by not thoroughly worked through.

A.Death presents little to no variation and the tracks mostly sound the same as every song sound like small variations of the same riff. The vocals are terribly unvaried and just not good enough to justify not doing anything else. If I would have to mention two good things about the album it is that the slow headbanging parts are alright and some acceptable riffs now and then. But it's not nearly enough to warrant more than 40%.

Originally written for http://gouls-crypt.blogspot.com/

You would think that nowadays everything that has got a label OLD SCHOOL and comes from Sweden must be a sure shot and killer music. But no, there were few less inspiring exceptions, like Crucifyre. So far Putrified also wasn't able to convince me at all. The previous recordings from this one-man project were quite miserable to be honest and especially their sound quality was just awful. I did hope though that the new Putrified album, "Neurotic Necrotic", will bring much improvement in every aspect of obscure death metal that A.Death tries to perform, but I'm afraid I got only disappointed, as this new full length is not much better than any of the previous Putrified released.

Again I can only say that I don't like the production of "Neurotic Necrotic". It's very amateurish and too raw and primitive to my taste. Hmm, I have nothing against muddy sounds, but sometimes it's just too much, just like on "Neurotic Necrotic". The guitars may sound fine, their garage sound may lack the aggression, but makes up for that in the atmosphere. But with the annoying drum machine it all just results in the kind of production I like least, which is homemade, uninspiring and deprived of all the aggression and obscure feeling such music should have. With that, "Neurotic Necrotic" doesn't make me bang my skull, but rather think how dull such bedroom bands are.

Musically Putrified is very old school, combining some of the most ravage and morbid Swedish bands (Grotesque, Nihilist, Morbid, etc) with the Autopsy meets Repulsion meets Mantas, etc. But with all the respect, I can't hear much good riffing on "Neurotic Necrotic", Putrified is completely deprived of powerful riffs, good ideas and anything else, that usually would make the music worthy. Not that there's absolutely nothing what would be listenable, there may be few better fragments, but they all are drowned in the sea of such boredom I haven't heard in this genre for a long time. Sorry to say so, but I am not going to lie anyone, there's just absolutely nothing on "Neurotic Necrotic" I would find as decent, I can be picky on each detail of this music, even the vocals annoy me (they're sort of bad copy of Chris Reifert's)... So, in the end I think such recording doesn't deserve anything more that being released as a demo, definitely not as a CD album, but that's the mark of our times that even the most crappy recordings find their way out of the pits and get professionaly released. I think that's the first such real slip in the roster of Hellthrasher, hopefully the last one ever. Much trust me, there are far better and more superior old school death metal releases around nowadays to worry about this one, so basically "Neurotic Necrotic" can just be skipped.