It’s taken a disproportionate amount of time to pen this review, in no small part because it’s been difficult to pin down what the real thoughts and reflections are about the album. It was well within intent to have this done and dusted before the album’s release on March 3rd, and yet here we are, still without completely cogent ideas, but with enough to go on.
So, we’re just gonna start talking, and hopefully amidst the rambling sentiments there will be some themes that give a decent picture of what Necropanther’s “Betrayal” both is and isn’t.
For starters, this is thrash in the new millennium, borrowing heavily from death metal, both distant and recent, yet keeping the core of simple, accessible riffs that became the hallmark of thrash forty years ago.
Stripping away the vocals from Necropanther, it’s easy to see a spiritual successor to the bright-but-brief phenomenon that was Power Trip. Let’s drill down for a second into what is surely the album’s best song, “If You Can Count,” which ohbytheway, is representative of the climactic speech delivered by Cyrus in the most memorable scene in “The Warriors,” upon which the whole album is loosely based (and also upon the Greek myth that the film is in turn based on.) Guitarist/vocalist Paul Anop noted that “Betrayal” is the first time he’s really allowed himself to stretch into solos, and the effect transforms Necropanther into something more than just another new age thrash/death band. The solo he unleashes toward the end of the song is more rock than metal, more Van Halen than Slayer, and however brief it may be, in stands in stark juxtaposition to the rest of the song. It serves as the perfect bridge into the twin guitar outro, which is again notable for its brevity.
Skipping ahead to “Revenants,” we encounter much of the same pattern. Does anyone remember the 2010 album by As They Sleep, called “Dynasty”? That was a middling record, but it was punctuated by one sublime, transcendent single, “Bedlam at the Nile.” It took the better part of a week to figure out where the song construction of “Revenants” was familiar from, and finally there it was. This new track by Necropanther inverts the formula, going with the grindy bit first, followed by the galloping riff, and then grinds back out, but the dance steps are similar.
As “Betrayal” proceeds it dips more and more into the death metal patterns of recent years, sounding at many points similar to Vaelmyst’s recent “Secrypts of the Egochasm.” We mention this only because the combination of these albums, and their combined utilization of melodic riffs and solos flayed out over the nailbed of frenetic drums, lends hope that perhaps the next wave of great American thrash/death is nigh. Some years ago, it was believed that Lazarus AD might be the flagbearer for that march, and then Power Trip in their turn, but for reasons either confounding or heartbreaking, the wave crashed against the rocks and receded. Hope springs eternal here.
“Betrayal” bears the hallmarks, intentional or accidental, of some other albums from relative yesteryear, like the aforementioned Lazarus AD’s “The Onslaught,” and even the barest hint of Prototype’s progressive metal “Catalyst.”
And so it’s easy to recommend “Betrayal” as a satisfying and accomplished listen for all fans of either death or thrash, no matter the personal preferred stripe….and yet.
For all its accomplishment, both in technical merit and in so low a concept as simple enjoyability, there is a certain je ne sais quoi that holds the production back. It’s almost as though the album is equal to the sum of its parts, no more and no less. It is difficult to find the ‘ah-ha!’ moment that makes truly brilliant albums shine.
That said, and this in no way clears the muddied waters of this humble review, this review was published when it was simply so that it could be run reasonably near the album’s release. Listening to “Betrayal” hasn’t stopped, and every subsequent pass yields some new find, some minor discovery, or at least paints the pictures in different relief.
There is no conclusion because there is not yet a firm conclusion.
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