NECROPHOBIC: “IN THE TWILIGHT GREY”

(Below you’ll find DGR‘s review of the new album by Sweden’s Necrophobic, released on March 15th by Century Media Records.)

Mark this as one of the most profound statements you’ll ever read on this site: As NCS has grown older and followed the careers of many a heavy metal band, we seem to be reviewing more and more albums that have hit double-digits in a band’s discography. Who would’ve thought the passage of time would be such a crazy thing?

It’s taken Sweden’s Necrophobic a while to get there – their first having been released in 1993 – but they’ve actually kept to a surprisingly consistent amount of time between albums over the years. They’ve never fully fallen into the ‘every two-to-three-years’ album schedule that many career bands do, and beginning with 2002’s Bloodhymns, the gaps between albums have remained steady, hovering at around three-and-a-half to four years.

Photo by Jens Rydén

In fact, the big surprise was the distance between 2018’s Mark Of The Necrogram and 2020’s Dawn Of The Damned, legitimately one of the shortest distances between full-lengths for the group yet.

Granted, that’s only partially reflecting the many changes and events happening within Necrophobic throughout their career as well – there was almost a sense between those previous two albums that the band felt they had to strike while the iron was hot now that they had a particularly stable lineup.

The group’s newest album In The Twilight Grey sees a return to more consistent timetables for Necrophobic – though torture on the fans of their particular soupy hybrid of death, melodic black, and all things evil (and even partially camp) – with a gap of closer to four years. Although what could have potentially assisted in causing anything like a band suddenly slamming the brakes on releases or any of that within the time between 2020 and now… the world may never know.

For those familiar with Necrophobic you can rest assurred that In The Twilight Grey doesn’t have the band straying too far from what they’re known for. Like many of the ‘double digit album bands’ referenced early on here, Necrophobic have long found a groove for themselves in the wider musical sphere and hew pretty close to it on every release. Discussing albums such as these is more an exercise in discussing iterations and shades rather than massive leaps in style or sudden shifts.

Photo by Jens Rydén

Necrophobic could trademark this particular branch of the melodic black tree all their own, as if they haven’t already carved their initials with a ‘+Satan’ surrounded by a heart in the trunk of it. They have done this long enough that they’ve secured quite a bit of musical integrity to post up alongside their brand, and it buys them a lot more wiggle room to give into a fair bit of ‘camp’ and ‘cheese’ from time to time.

Usually it’s glorious, but considering how fine a line Necrophobic have learned to walk over the years – often while juggling multiple styles and riding a unicycle it seems – every Necrophobic album has often had a sort of unspoken thrill to it, in the same way one might watch a high-wire act. Is this the moment things finally get too campy for the rafter-dwelling vampires? Is this the sense of the band becoming a pastiche of a wider genre working its fingers deeper into the wound? Is this the one where Necrophobic tumble ass-first into corpse-painted cartoon world? Or do they somehow manage to still combine knife-sharp guitar work and straightforward percussive hammering with a realm of black metal often scoffed at for daring to be approachable? The risk is always there, a spectre in the distance – but in that same sense, so too is the thrill.

In The Twilight Grey starts out mighty strong – a common thing for groups to do with albums deep into their career – knowing fully where their bread is buttered and dishing out meal after meal of it. While it seems like Necrophobic have managed to clear chasing the peaks of Mark Of The Necrogram out of their system, the group find different ways for the first handful of songs to keep grasping hold of your attention.

If it seems like the first four tracks within In The Twilight Grey are alternating similar song lengths, you wouldn’t be too far off as they stick closely to a pattern of five minute followed by about four-and-a-half minute – napkin math here – and use that time to break out some of the more raucous tracks within the album. The surprises arrive shortly thereafter, with Necrophobic packing a few six-to-seven-minute songs into the fray as well. Just the ten-track version of In The Twilight Grey sails well over fifty minutes of music, with the limited-edition version adding another ten minutes of weight.

Long story short, though they’ve been gone for four years Necrophobic have plenty to offer a listener this time around and for the most part the trip is enjoyable – there’s only a couple of times when it seems like things are getting a little long in the tooth. Definitely not within the first four of “Grace Of The Past”, “Clavis Inferni”, “As Stars Collide”, and “StormCrow”, which are like their own mini-EP of sharpened blades before Necrophobic wander further into a darkened void.

“As Stars Collide” may drift a little too hard into the ‘yo ho’ drinking-song territory with its main guitar riff – the swaying folk-metal influence creeping in on the periphery with that one – but it breaks up the outright assault of the other three. Considering that it, “Grace Of The Past”, and “Stormcrow” were all lead-off songs for In The Twilight Grey, you could hazard their placement is a calculated move, but it’s hard to deny the fun in the infernal assault of at least three of those four, with “Clavis Inferni” taking the honor of being the most infernal and flame-spewing of that particular bunch, though “Stormcrow” makes a solid late-play for that title. In the face of a solid double-bass-drum-heavy intro and fiery guitar part though? All melt before the anthemic “Clavis Inferni”.

“Shadows Of The Blackest Night” being the turning point upon which the songs within In The Twilight Grey start to reach more epic-length territory does deserve a bit of praise, however. You’d wonder how a group whose songs have grown to be relatively sleek over the years – like room-clearing incendiary devices rather than full dumb-fired conflagrations – could start getting into seven-plus-minute length but “Shadows Of The Blackest Night” manages to do so without you wondering if the song is taking too long.

If anything, that actually happened more during “Mirrors Of A Thousand Lakes” by simple fact that the two songs blend together so well; one fades out and the other is immediate upon appearance. They’re almost like one thirteen-plus-minute epic were it not for “Mirrors” drifting a little into faceless blasphemy realms for its mid-segment. “Shadows Of The Blackest Night” would likely be a high-five-minute song anywhere else, the way it cycles back around on itself in a simpler-format, but the song has a bit of an extended heavy instrumental intro and a hefty “go!” right at the front. Though much of it pales in memorability to the sudden stabbing of the “Nothing! We are Nothing!” line that the verses bend themselves upon.

The extended epic segments happen again to close out In The Twilight Grey as well. Its title-track reaches for the sky in an attempt to pull the sun down, sailing as close to eight minutes as it seems they could, and right after it is a closing three minutes of instrumental howling.

The band start In The Twilight Grey with their sharpened daggers as singles, well in their comfort zone and long-proven, and then spend much of the album showing off how they can make a longer number seem just as short as those opening tracks. Necrophobic do well when launching infernal firebombs over and over, and much of In The Twilight Grey is that – they even break up the pacing a bit in the back half for one more quick-fired launch of “Cast In Stone”.

Necrophobic don’t spend much of their new album questing into uncharted territories or strange waters. They don’t really need to, having solidified into their current incarnation long ago now and in some ways completing a music arc that began back on Mark Of The Necrogram. They know how to keep things interesting throughout and for the most part don’t fall off the fine high-wire act that they’ve made a career from, providing just enough horror-esque camp to be fun while still maintaining a grand-swath of the infernal to frighten.

There is room to explore within In The Twilight Grey and Necrophobic take advantage of that in the latter half of the album. Front half, all business with three of those songs rabid and out for blood. Back half? Longer songs that manage to feel just as short as the front batch for the most part. Necrophobic do a lot of this without falling into the trap of becoming shiftless avatars. They’re dangerous when they’re at their most earworm-esque, and In The Twilight Grey has more than its fair share within the time it asks of you. It’s always enjoyable to go on the infernal thrill-ride with the Necrophobic crew and see how close the coaster goes to sailing completely off the rails this time, waiting on edge to see right when the pin will drop and the fiery fun will end.

https://necrophobic.lnk.to/InTheTwilightGrey
https://www.facebook.com/necrophobic.official/