Necrophagia – Goblins Be Thine
Red Stream Records – RSR 0170 – 2004
By Russell Garwood
Horror-based metal merchants
Necrophagia are back with a new MCD,
Goblins Be Thine, which differs somewhat musically from their extremely entertaining previous release,
The Divine Art Of Torture. The addition of
Sigh’s Mirai Kawashima had made relatively little impact on this album, other than subtle effects during the songs, but
Goblins… sees many sections given over entirely to keyboard atmospherics. While this will no doubt meet with complaints from some, they are extremely effective, and drive home the horror influences even more forcefully than before. Lyric-wise, the ever busy Killjoy provides us stories based on Hideo Nakata’s “Ringu”, necrophilia, goblins and many other horror nasties. His trademark spewed vocals are still present in the metallic sections, but whispers and rasps are also used, giving the sinister instrumentals further eerie atmosphere. Metallic sections have simple, heavy guitars, murky production, groove-strong bass and more melody than you might expect from such a death-influenced sound. As usual, horror/splatter/gore/shock film samples are used to great effect - well placed, they ring of the romanticised, B-movie, horror escapism which makes
Necrophagia’s music so likeable.
Standouts include “To Sleep With The Dead”, which uses the main theme from Jorg Buttgereit’s “Nekromantik” and a monologue about sleeping with cadavers – hardly surprising, considering the film’s plot, and a new version of “Young Burial”, which originally appeared on
Death Is Fun. As always with [B[Necrophagia[/b] this is an acquired taste. It is likely to meet with approval from their cult following, but perhaps not so much in the wider world of metal fans.
Goblins Be Thine is a solid release, and shows significant development from
The Divine Art Of Torture. I look forward to hearing the new album…
Official Necrophagia website
Official Red Stream Records website
