Lifeless Birth

Album review

One of the most undeniable heavy-metal trends of the 2020s thus far has been the new wave of American death metal, which is being spearheaded by Undeath, Frozen Soul, 200 Stab Wounds, and Sanguisugabogg. Those groups have injected a long-overdue jolt of lifeblood into the old-school death-metal idiom by playing to youthful hardcore crowds and reining back some of death-metal's stuffy self-seriousness in favor of a more goofy, approachable aesthetic demeanor. Necrot aren't exactly a part of that wave. They're a half-step older than most of the players in those aforementioned groups, and they hail from Oakland, CA, as opposed to Ohio  and Texas—two major hotspots of contemporary American death metal.

But Necrot feel a part of that conversation for one main reason: Their new album, Lifeless Birth, might be the best American death-metal album this side of the pandemic. Their 2020 sophomore LP, Mortal, was wonderfully spikey and haggard in its own right, but Lifeless Birth feels like a monumental upgrade in every regard. "Drilling the Skull" has the Neanderthalic groove that's so beloved among today's Obituary devotees, and tracks like "Lifeless Birth" and "Cut the Cord" have boisterously yellable refrains. But Necrot's crafty melodicism is counterweighted by truly delectable riffage and some genuinely mind-bending guitar solos, elements that set them apart from the pack.

While other bands may have left the mouthwatering swing-groove at the center of "Superior" as is, Necrot savvily garnished it with a twirling lead lick that burns elegantly yet dangerously like a curlicue dynamite fuse. The barbaric bludgeons of near-nine-minute closer "The Curse" hit even harder after your ear has already been treated to the bonkers soloing on previous tracks "Dead Memories" and "Lifeless Birth," lending the album a dynamic breadth that's usually only achieved by prog-minded death-metallers like Tomb Mold and Blood Incantation. On Lifeless Birth, Necrot remind us that ugly, chanty, shreddy and caveman-y aren't mutually exclusive breeds of death metal. But it takes a band as skilled as Necrot to twist them all together as seamlessly as they do here.  © Eli Enis/Qobuz