Band:	Nekrogoblikon
Album:	Welcome To Bonkers
Style:	Melodic death metal, Extreme power metal
Release date:	April 13, 2018
A review by:	ScreamingSteelUS

01. Mold
02. The Many Faces Of Dr. Hubert Malbec
03. Row
04. Dressed As Goblins
05. Dragons
06. Thanks For Nothing Moon
07. The Skin Thief
08. Darkness
09. The Magic Spider
10. Killing Time
11. Goblins

Humor plays a vital role in Nekrogoblikon's music, but the band has smartly avoided becoming a "joke band" reliant on image or yoked to one gimmick (self-deprecating compositions notwithstanding). Novelty has kept Nekrogoblikon alive, sure, but only in tandem with strong musical output like Stench and Power, and it's the failure to cultivate the musical side properly that made Heavy Meta a less impactful release than its predecessors. Welcome To Bonkers returns this green, pimply, slimy quintet to its Goblin Throne.

Heavy Meta pulled Nekrogoblikon away from melodeath and extreme power just slightly, shaving down some of the brute force and leaning more on quirkiness. Obviously, no Nekrogoblikon album is complete without those quirks, though Welcome To Bonkers brings back the brawn we felt on Stench, with a heavier tone and production that makes the album feel more cohesive in spite of its many stylistic variations. The production, noticeably a cut above previous Nekrogoblikon releases, certainly plays a large part in restoring the band's vitality on this album.

In addition to the standard patterns that Nekrogoblikon typically employs, this album veers into heavier genres like technical death metal and symphonic death metal on occasion, also playing up the "power" in "extreme power" to the point of achieving actual bombast in songs like "Row" and "Thanks For Nothing Moon." "The Skin Thief" opens with pilfered Stratovarius flavors and evolves into some kind of parodic Carach Angren by the chorus, while "The Magic Spider" evokes whimsical folk-prog, surf, and cool Caribbean tunes in a confusing, yet catchy and uplifting, ode to wish-granting spiders on the moon. The closer, "Goblins," is one of the band's most fascinating compositions to date, like a heavier, Queen-influenced take on The Flaming Lips - and Muse lurks around so many corners throughout the album. The keyboards especially seem to be branching out and driving the exploration of new textures and moods.

Meanwhile, Nekrogoblikon's personal style remains in fit, fighting form - Scorpion's froggy rasping, versatile thrash and melodeath riffing, keys covering every style from the carnival to the dance floor to the haunted castle, and a unique sense for combining rhythm and melody into carnivorous hooks. We have in "Mold" a classic-sounding Nekrogoblikon single, decked out with the kind of nasal chorus I've been sorely missing, and even the least adventurous tracks have the stamp of personality that we haven't heard in too many years.

Heavy Meta is a good album, but, unusual personality notwithstanding, it feels like more of the same style that plenty of non-goblin-themed bands have already explored; Welcome To Bonkers finds the fun in experimenting again, advancing Nekrogoblikon's sound in a substantial manner the way Stench improved on Goblin Island. Welcome To Bonkers demonstrates that Nekrogoblikon is putting out feelers into other genres, steadily advancing its musical spheres, and picking up more styles to incorporate. With the significant improvement in songwriting, Welcome To Bonkers feels incredibly passionate and alive, as ridiculous as it might be to append those adjectives to an album about dancing goblins and rambunctious dragons.