Band:	Asphyx
Album:	Necroceros
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	January 2021

01. The Sole Cure Is Death
02. Molten Black Earth
03. Mount Skull
04. Knights Templar Stand
05. Three Years Of Famine
06. Botox Implosion
07. In Blazing Oceans
08. The Nameless Elite
09. Yield Or Die
10. Necroceros

Is it too early to talk about AOTY contenders?

Asphyx are a band remarkably short of plaudits given how consistent they have been throughout their career, always serving up good-to-great records but never managing to increase their profile the way their output would support. Necroceros yet again sees the band deliver in spades and reward fans who have waited five years for some new recorded output.

Necroceros follows in the path of the band's prior work, the same heedy mix of death/doom making for yet more great tracks and songs to scare your unsuspecting friends with. Nearing their twenty-fifth year active, time has not been a constraint or hinderance for the band and they produce a record with as much hunger and passion as many bands younger than them. The ten tracks that comprise Necroceros serve to highlight the different and diverse flavours the band have made their own; from the take no prisoners death metal assault of tracks like "The Sole Cure Is Death" to the mid-paced but no less hard-hitting "Yield Or Die" and lumbering leviathans such as the title track, Asphyx have encapsulated it all in one record for fans. The common thread between all of these tracks is the lavishing's of death metal guitars from Baayens, who gives each track a cutting guitar attack of its own.

If Martin van Drunen isn't a contender for the title of best metal vocalist then clearly something is wrong with the world. His distinct hoarse roar compliments the chaos created by the rest of the band; sitting just to the side of the music in the mix, his vocals are clear and do not limit or distract from the amazing barrage of riffs and passages the rest of the band throw out with apparent ease. Tracks like "Molten Black Earth" and "In Blazing Oceans" see perfect musical mutualism for the benefit of the listener.

Speaking of the mix, the production on Necroceros is spot on; everything is crisp and pushed to the fore of the speakers to the point you think the music is going to burst through, leaving you captivated and on the edge of your feet awaiting that moment to occur. While this issue of pushing everything up in the mix usually ends in a muddy mess as each instrument overlaps the other, care has been taken to keep them separated but connected such that the band occupy every bit of space but do not stand on each other's feet. The bass fills the void of only having one guitarist perfectly and creates a floor that raises everyone else up; though it has no stand out moments of its own, it is used well throughout tracks like "Three Years Famine".

Asphyx do double down on giving fans what they want, and this does have a drawback for those who are not fans of what they offer; if you were not a fan of their brand of death metal before then Necroceros will unlikely be enough to convince you to change your mind. With that said, for those who are unaware or have only just gotten into the band, this record should get you off of the fence and running full speed into the pit as the band start up "Botox Implosion".

Asphyx blow away the January blues with hurricane force and ensure 2021 gets off on a hell of a strong foot (musically anyway, any news when we can go outside again?) and plants its footprint on the top spot already, raising the bar for those who come afterwards to try and knock it off of its perch. Necroceros may not convince those who have already turned the band down, but more fool them.