Despite protestations to the contrary, a brief respite afforded by three and a half hours of sunshine, the head of Spring has been cleaved from its shoulders by the bastard grey, concreted sarcophagus of all things Winter, as she descends once again and blackens the mood of the country as we await the spring mounted traps of lockdown to release us like greyhounds running from a rabid brown bears into the welcoming embrace of a Wetherspoons breakfast with seven pints of Fosters being the inevitable denouement.

Mood suitably peaked, another review descends from the blood-soaked corridors of Ave Noctum towers and slithers through my virtual letterbox, glistening like new-born baby under lights. Next up, are Marasmus, a Death Metal band from Kansas City, Missouri, who, with two previous albums in their back catalogue, offer up this, their third full length effort, into the world. And when I say ‘Death Metal’ I really do mean Death Metal. In the completely made up dictionary of heavy metal (although that’s not a bad idea for a new money making scheme and who wouldn’t want a dictionary of heavy metal bands/phrases cluttering up their Christmas stocking…that’s right no one would turn that down right?), if you flick through to the letter D, you’ll obviously find Death Metal and in the definition you would find Marasmus, sitting proudly in their long sleeved Deicide t-shirts, throwing the horns and scowling. It might sound trite, but Marasmus, have thrown away any preconceptions about subjugating the musical genre they obviously love, and have stuck to the path craved out for them by Chuck Schuldiner, The Tardy’s and Trey Azagthoth et al.

Funnily enough (it’s not funny) but reminiscing about school Death Metal, this reminds me of an ill-fated house party in the early 1990’s, thrown by a ‘friend of a friend’ that we attended, in a salubrious street somewhere in North Finchley. Unbeknownst to said, ‘friend of a friend’, we had also invited some of our other ‘metal loving’ friends to attend also. Turning up looking like a pre-pubescent gaggle of Sepultura wannabee’s (although to be fair, Sepultura were also spotty teenagers at that time) and with cans of warm supermarket own brand high strength lager, we proceeded to commandeer the living room, shoved a cassette of Deicide’s ground-breaking self-titled debut album into the Sanyo music system and via an impromptu mosh pit, smash the living piss out of the living room. Now I am not condoning such behaviour and to be honest I was not responsible for any ‘smashing’ although I may have disturbed a cushion or two, but the point here, is that growing up in the nascent shadow of Death Metal, it has always had a visceral and powerful effect on me…and suburban living rooms.

Marasmus are adhering closely to the Death Metal handbook here. Barked vocals very much from the Glenn Benton Book of Barks predominate, the drums are hugely impressive, and they have that wonderfully triggered sound to the double bass drums cacophony that underpins the hammer headed guitar attack that recalls prime cuts from Nile’s back catalogue. Now this might sound like I am just naming the great and the good of the Death Metal nomenclature by way of a lazy comparison (I am) but it is justified here, because there are no concessions made to modernity, except for perhaps the production values, which are warm and massive, exploding from the speakers (nee headphones). You could tell me that this album was been recorded in 1992 and I would not bat an eye. Is it any good? Well, yes, it is.

It’s not breaking any barriers nor is it pushing any other agenda accept to point back to the past and say, “Isn’t old school Death Metal fucking brilliant?” and the answer to that is yes… yes, it is. There is much to enjoy on this album despite the obvious platitudes to a musical movement started almost 40 years ago and Marasmus make no apologies for the obvious (and enjoyable) genuflection. If you like Death Metal, then you are going to enjoy Necrotic Overlord and not just for the music, but for all

the other genre throwbacks. The artwork ticks all the Death Metal tropes you could wish to find including, rivers of guts, bodies, and bones replete with a nefarious central protagonist, that’s part fly/spider/ghoul/skeleton as well as some amazing merch featuring said album cover replete with the habitual indecipherable spiky band logo (obviously available in long sleeve t-shirt form). It is a warm blanket of blook soaked nostalgia, that is highly proficient despite how on the nose its musical influences are. I have listened to this album more than half a dozen times now and I can safely say that it improves on each further listen. This not just an exercise in hero worship but a highly talented band, mining their obvious love for a genre and creating an album full of brutal, old school death metal gems.

(8.5/10 Nick Griffiths)

https://www.facebook.com/MarasmusKCDM

https://marasmusdeath.bandcamp.com/album/necrotic-overlord-death-metal