The below album review was written for AreaDeath Productions’ release of Necroabbot's 2015 full-length "Hell Torment." Posted on Metal Archives, the target audience for this review was metal music enthusiasts and potential consumers. Metal Archives is an online metal music resource that is considered by many to be The Holy Grail of all metal music-related information.
See original posting here.
When looking at the global metal scene as a whole, the Asian metal scene is usually not considered as a contestant. Generally speaking, it doesn’t even make it into the brackets, which is utterly absurd. To add to the absurdity is how the western consensus of the global metal scene assumes Japan, stereotypically speaking, to be the Asian metal scene in its entirety. Don’t get me wrong, Japan is a major, if not, the major hotspot for metal in Asia, but, like in Europe, the Asian metal scene is quite vast and rich, with each country having its own signature aesthetics and repertoire. For instance, look at Taiwan, an island that was once claimed by Japan, where the most abundant extreme musical styles would definitely be of the crust punk, death and thrash metal varieties.
Formed in 2012 as Bitch Finder, Taiwan’s Necroabbot is a no-frills Frankenstein monster of all the delicious sinfulness that metal has to offer. Even though they define themselves as a death metal/thrash metal crossbreed, and others feel that their sonic attack of nuclear proportions is of a more death metal/crust punk flavor, I would associate Necroabbot with the raw metal-punk, blacken thrash explosion that is sweeping across Asia with such bands as Japan’s Barbatos, Abigail, and Sabbat; China’s Hellward and Tractor Eye, and Necroabbot’s hometown comrades Bazöoka. However, genre and subgenre defining is a pompous, subjective act and, in many ways, is simply setting up pigeonholes and unnecessary constraints on a band’s sound. Necroabbot’s sound on Hell Torment, their debut album on AreaDeath Productions, transcends the inane specifications of genres.
Necroabbot is not a niche band that puts out your run-of-the-mill material. They, in contrast, are arch monks of the undead, so to speak, with a sheer sonic force that will leave you transmigrated into a state of aural nirvana. With their edgy and catchy tunes Necroabbot’s members, Hong Pai (紅牌), Spike, Xiao Ou (小歐), and Mark (馬克), are surely disciples of all that is heavy and damned. As blasphemic gurus, they’re not timid to vaporize your convictions of the unholy and to plague your eardrums with impious sermons praising everything from our demise (“Evil Domination”) and civil disobedience (“Outbreak of Disorder”) to more fantasy, horror B-movie themes (“Rise From Graves”).
The overall atmosphere of Hell Torment channels the sluggishness of old school death metal and orthodox black metal, yet also invokes the vehement qualities of grindcore, thrash and crust punk. Songs such as “Apocalyptic Doom” and “Evil Domination” emit a high voltage gloom and doom that is both dismal and rapturous, while the intro track “Hell Storm,” along with “Degeneracy” and “Escape the Chains,” all exhibit the other end of the spectrum that is Necroabbot’s sound: A more blatantly pure, aural assault.
As previously stated, Necroabbot comes from the same rib as some of the major heretics of the black thrash, death/crust punk coven, such as Barbatos (also signed to AreaDeath Productions) and Taiwan’s own toxic warriors, Bazöoka. Being that Spike was a vocalist and a drummer of Bazöoka for a number of years, it’s no surprise that Necroabbot’s material has the same nuclear blast quality that any of Bazöoka’s call-to-arms do. As such, the same wasteland warlock agnosticism that Bazöoka ascribes to is also faintly noticeable in Necroabbot’s material. From the instrumental beat down that resembles the wrath of an almighty, but with a melodic surfer rock flare, to the perpetual, demonic advocacy for raw noise and a rebellious, unorthodox ideology, Necroabbot is also well versed in the art of metal-punk debauchery.
In sum, the songs are devouring and thrilling, leaving you in a meditative state or zombified bliss, which ever you prefer. Necroabbot’s sermons invoke spiritual awakening even the most nihilistic and secular individuals can become enthralled by. With song titles like “Black Wolf, Pussy, and Motherfucker,” “Whores of the Wasteland,” and “Bitch Finder” (referred to as “Nuclear the Bitch” on the complimentary CD included with issue #5 of China’s Total Thrash magazine) how could you not worship the insanity that Necroabbot elicits? Get ready to offer yourself as a sacrifice to any and all under lords in the name of all that is nuclear and iconoclastic.