Eroded are a two piece death metal unit from Italy and have been around in one form or another since 2003. “Necropath” is their second full length album and the follow up to 2012’s “Engravings Of A Gruesome Epitaph” and you know what? It’s a good’un!
This is some full on death metal a’la early Hate Eternal but with a nice Swedish vibe going on. From the album opener ‘Eternal Warspate’, the record oozes intensity and an old school vibe that I really like. No wheel re-invention or anything fancy, just solid riffing and decent tunes. There’s not a lot of experimentation going on here and that’s a good thing in my book I mean, if you were marooned on a desert island would you rather have a Dismember record or an Obscura album? Exactly! What we do have though is a tasty blend of old school Swedish death metal with a forceful intensity usually reserved for some of the more technical DM bands. While the album isn’t an instant “grabber” there’s a certain something that has made me play this numerous times over the last week, I think it’s the combination of mid-paced bruising thuggery and the sporadic blasts of lightning speed aggression. The repeated listens have given me a massive respect for this album and the way the band combine the soundscapes of say Bolt Thrower and Grave – opener “Eternal Warspate” is a great example – is brilliant.
The menacing growling vocals are part Willets, part Ingram and part Van Drunen….. a rather unhealthy combo for the dudes throat I’m sure you’ll agree but spot on here.
Like I said, I’ve played this a lot and there’s a distinct groove lurking under the relentless intensity and I reckon it’s this that’s kept me hooked. But no matter what particular sphere of death metal you prefer, there’s guaranteed to be something here that you’ll really like.
(8/10 Mark Eve)
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