NECROPHAGIA – SEASON OF THE DEAD – 1987
Well, I know which album I will be pulling out come next Halloween. Season of the Dead is like the musical incarnation of Tales from the Crypt, the essence of the album is the stories of horror, death and gore that are told through the lyrics and less of a focus on the instrumental. The vocals are done in a way that Frank "Killjoy" Pucci sounds more like a narrator as rather than singing with the music, he speaks over the music quite audible and clean with a bit of rasp and snarl for dramatic flare. The dramatics do not end there on the album, keyboards and even acoustic guitars are used like special effects in a "B" horror movie. A few songs, "Ancient Slumber" for example, have what sound like excerpts from actual horror movies in the introduction or pieced into the songs. The creativity and potential just within reach on Season of the Dead will be what captures you on this album. Necrophagia truly hit the mark for trying to define a freshly born genre of horror and gore that hasn't had the umbilical cord cut yet.
Even though the theatrics over shadow the instrumentals, the album has more than its share of diverse riffs and experimentation with same. The song "Mental Decay" is my favorite showcase on the album for what these young musicians from Wellsville, Ohio are capable of. The introduction is a frantic and buzzing build up that works into a thrashy riff structure, they find a rhythm here more so than any other song for rather graceful tempo changes. The let down musically on this album for me is the drums. In songs such as "Terminal Vision" and "Painful Discharge" they are slow, simple beats that are used and at times seem to struggle to keep up with the guitars. "Beyond and Back" which is, inarguably in my books, the most polished hidden gem on this album with its variety from relentless stabbing riffs to its slow yet technical solos. Now that this is at a close it is time for me to track down my copy of Zelda Ocarina of Time, as the first song "Season of the Dead/Forbidden Zone" about three minutes in reminds me of the Temple of Time, every time.
Standouts: Mental Decay, Beyond and Back
Rating: 7/10
Even though the theatrics over shadow the instrumentals, the album has more than its share of diverse riffs and experimentation with same. The song "Mental Decay" is my favorite showcase on the album for what these young musicians from Wellsville, Ohio are capable of. The introduction is a frantic and buzzing build up that works into a thrashy riff structure, they find a rhythm here more so than any other song for rather graceful tempo changes. The let down musically on this album for me is the drums. In songs such as "Terminal Vision" and "Painful Discharge" they are slow, simple beats that are used and at times seem to struggle to keep up with the guitars. "Beyond and Back" which is, inarguably in my books, the most polished hidden gem on this album with its variety from relentless stabbing riffs to its slow yet technical solos. Now that this is at a close it is time for me to track down my copy of Zelda Ocarina of Time, as the first song "Season of the Dead/Forbidden Zone" about three minutes in reminds me of the Temple of Time, every time.
Standouts: Mental Decay, Beyond and Back
Rating: 7/10
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