GOREAPHOBIA - Apocalyptic Necromancy CD
Dark Descent Records
Genre: Death Metal
Rating: 5/5
The term "cult band" has been thrown around so much over the past few years (by lessor beings) that it has lost some of it's effect on the extreme music loving public. I rarely use the term because most bands don't fit the criteria needed in order to meet my standards. In the case of this Philadelphia death metal act, cult status is warranted. GOREAPHOBIA are legendary for two reasons. The first is that they were part of the original U.S. death metal class of 88. The second is that they never released a full length until 2009 that one being Mortal Repulsion. What put GOREAPHOBIA on the musical map, as well as in the minds of all death metal cult collectors, was their self released stuff and a single all from the 1990s. Those being the three song first demo Morbidious Pathology from 1990, the two song Relapse single Omen of Masochism and their two song demo from 1994. Now before you go on a Google tangent search for those gems just get the Vile Beast of Abomination compilation which came out on Necroharmonic Productions out of NJ in 2007. I highly recommend it for your early USDM fix since it's a document of this band's greatness.
Now as far as modern day GOREAPHOBIA goes (the band had a revolving door of band members over the years with bassist vocalist Chris Gamble and guitarist Alex Bouks being the only remaining originals) in 2009 their long awaited debut was finally released. Even better was that INCANTATION's John McEntee was on second guitar and former ENGORGE drummer Jim Roe was doing the pounding. That one came out on Ibex Moon Records and was pretty damm good considering. So now we have the follow-up except this time John McEntee is out and multi instrumentalist VJS (KULT OV AZAZEL, CRIMSON MOON, NIGHTBRINGER) is on second guitar. Nevertheless Apocalyptic Necromancy is simply part two of old school musicians playing OSDM to the hilt. If you've read or listened to any recent interviews with Gamble or Bouks then you know they have no real love for modern death metal. To them "old school" is the only school that matters and with their music it works. Some people see old bands who return as merely ghosts of their former selves just playing by the numbers. There are times when that's true but GOREAPHOBIA play with passion to the point were this is not nostalgia, this is real for the now.
Apocalyptic Necromancy is a fairly diverse sounding release which might surprise some people who were expecting one trick pony old school death metal nostalgia. There's plenty of blackened thrash on here because Chris Gamble is also in the blackened thrash band BLOOD STORM. So after the opening title cut (which is pure death) you hear thrash influenced cuts like "Xurroth Rreeth N'Vez Helm" (City of Rot and Decay) or "The Attractor". Both of which makes you want to run out into the street and slam into a moving vehicle. This is in no way a death thrash release since GOREAPHOBIA are hitting you with everything in the extreme metal arsenal be it death metal, thrash and even some doom. Sometimes all at once like in the extended length final cut "Rust Worms And The Noxious Fevers They Bring". Simply put this is an all around great release. Take it to the grave yard, blast it and watch the dead rise to start a pit. Fuck the grave stones getting in the way since it's not like they'll get hurt. Take this to your friend who hasn't removed his copy of Left Hand Path from the turntable since the 80's and watch his head spin when you push play. Just get this and thank the band for caring.
Label: http://www.darkdescentrecords.com/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/goreaphobia
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