Band:	Necrostrike
Album:	Red Is Out
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	February 2010

01. Red Is Out
02. Tuhandeaastane Ikaldus
03. Kosmosepedofiil
04. Sperma
05. Ma Kõngen
06. Pendliga Petturist Prohvet
07. Surnumatja Marss
08. Sõgedus
09. Silent Duck

Necrostrike's Red Is Out arrived in my mailbox last week. The graphics were so-so, but the image of the band sauntering around as zombies was worth a chuckle. The album was eagerly inserted into my home stereo as per the band it is a mix of death metal and crustcore... which sounds like Red Is Out is a little flattened plastic pancake of fun.

The band sounds like a mix of recent Napalm Death's grind with some chugga-chugga "-core" breakdowns and the spirited approach of some crust punk. Overall they effectively incorporate these elements well. The songs are structured so as to switch up the primary style prevent them from getting stale... the blended approach works.

The guitar riffs are largely adequate, they do the job? but seemingly every song has one or two ripping riffs within the structure that leap out and donkey punch the listener. Some are just tremolo muted low-E chugs with power chord accents like good 80's thrash, others multi-note runs that really spark interest in the songs. I also dig the tone, particularly on the riff about 55 seconds into the opening track.

The drumwork is also pretty similar to the riffing in that regard - fairly straightforward propelling the song along, but as each song seemingly gets a really cool riff or two thrown in that stands head and shoulders over the others, with each song the drummer gets to blast away with some cool fills here and there that also leap out at the listener.

The vocals of "Sperma" are also varied a bit, with him primarily performing in either a low end death style reminiscent of Frankie Mullins of Suffocation or a sort of crusty shouts , but every once in a while, as in the track "Sperma," he breaks out more of a higher register shriek with an evocative, but horribly amusing, delivery.

Lyrically, who knows what is going on. The lyrics are almost entirely in the band's native Estonian, at least I assume it's Estonian, with only the last track, "Silent Duck", in English. With lyrical nuggets like "Inserting all five fingers/torture makes your ass go wild/Screaming louder/bending over/fisting is my special style" maybe it's a good thing it's in Estonian?

Anyways, here's a youtube clip of them in action to give you a nice taste of the chaos.

I'm not particularly sure if Red Is Out is anything revolutionary, and it's not likely to get a ton of play time in my collection, but on the other hand, it is a good, fun album that I will be popping in from time-to-time to get all fired up when it's time to pre-party before a raucous night out drinking with my amigos.