Artist: Necrophobic 
   Title: Hrimthursum
   Label: Regain Records

After a four-year hiatus the dark lords of Swedish death metal Necrophobic are back with a new label, and with a new album under their belts, the band are here to fill the gap they left behind.

This is the bands fifth studio release and their most structured to date.  The band have stayed strong to their original sound, but have speeded up proceeding, unlike other bands of the genre who slow things down.  With this the band have upturned this trend and gone all out for the whole speed thing.

The album opens with the intro entitled ‘The Slaughter of Baby Jesus’, with its omen-like start you can almost see the pentagrams on these guys walls.  This gives way to the speed fest that is ‘Blinded By The Light, Enlightened By The Darkness’, a track that is more power metal than death metal, with its great guitar work by Sebastian Ramstedt, combined with some fantastic drumming by Joakim Sterner.

The same can be said about the next track ‘I Strike With Wrath’, another fast paced track laced with intricate guitars and powerhouse drumming.  The pace is slowed down just a touch with ‘Age Of Chaos’, although the dark side of the band is still there, with the harsh vocals mixed with a choral background to great effect against some Slayer styled guitar sound.

But it’s the speed that is the hallmark of Necrophobic, and it’s in abundance on the likes of ‘Bloodshed Eyes’, and on the guitar fuelled tracks ‘The Crossing’ and ‘Eternal Winter’.

However, the award for the fastest track on the album has to go to ‘Death Immaculate’, a real speed freaks delight.  Just to give your neck time to recover from the sheer velocity of ‘Death Immaculate’, the band go for the more sullen death metal sound on ‘Sitra Ahra’, with just a hint of Spanish guitar!!

'Serpents (Beneath The Forest Of The Dead)' is a track that starts off slowly at first, before building into a frenzied collection of guitars and drums, with the vocals taking a back seat on this one.  'Black Hate' is very much a thrash-orientated track with a pounding drumbeat. 

The album closes with the title track ‘Hrimthursum’, which is probably the darkest track on the album, and with the harsh vocals, rampaging guitars, and choral backing vocals, finishes off a quite unique death metal album. 

I strongly suspect there's is a power metal album inside these guys just waiting to be unleashed on a unsuspecting world.

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