I got on the PHYLACTERY train last summer when one of the band members reached out to me regarding their three-song demo for review. I highly enjoyed that one and knew that if and when the time came for a full-length album it would be something truly great. Well, Necromancy Enthroned (out now, Unspeakable Axe Records) is their debut album and I am pleased as punch to report I was right. As I’ve said before, these guys are an Old School Death/Thrash Metal hybrid. Citing influences such as POSSESSED and MORBID SAINT, all the tunes on this disc pack a wallop. They’re raw, unbridled, and pretty goddamn savage, as they should be.
Tracks like “Fulminations”, “King of Ruins”, and “Morbid Existence” really showcase the boiling cauldron of the music, and if you close your eyes, it sounds like something you’d have on your tape player in your bedroom back in the 80’s, the Glory Days of Metal. The latter two were actually on the aforementioned demo and they sound just as sharp a year later. Opener “Risen Restless Dead” and follow-up “Wisdom of Heretics” swing the hammer down with a mighty vengeance on unsuspecting skulls everywhere, while “Where I Dwell” has some of the most biting riffs I’ve ever heard from these guys.
“Enslaved By the Dawn” changes things up a bit, which is good, then “Eyes of Fear and Flame” comes in with one of my favorite arrangements on the record. I found myself repeating this one often, actually. “Bubonic Undeath” is one of those everything-and-the-kitchen-sink songs that just hurls everything at you, and “Unholy Empire” could arguably be the soundtrack to a ritualistic human sacrifice. The album ends with “Eat of My Disease”, another track I had heard in demo form and it rips your face to shreds and caps the record off very nicely. All told the debut from PHYLACTERY is a rousing success, and Necromancy Enthroned is an album I can highly recommend.
STANDOUT TRACKS: “Eyes of Fear and Flame”, “Where I Dwell”, “King of Ruins”, “Eat of My Disease”, “Morbid Existence”
RATING: 9/10
