Necromantia - Scarlet Evil Witching Black

Ah yes another Greek black metal band, but this is just not any band this is Necromantia, one of the main pillars of the whole Greek scene. Necromantia together with Rotting Christ, and Varathron were the ones that made the Greek scene famous, well if I even can say famous due that the average metalhead would only know the recent albums of Rotting Christ, which is highly unlikely. If you are familiar with Rotting Christ then Varathron would sound very similar to some extent, but if you are a bit familiar with the fore mentioned bands, Necromantia would be the strangest one of them all. Why? The answer is pretty simple, Necromantia's style is a bit faster, just fast enough, and when it comes to the instruments that they use is a whole different story. Necromantia doesn't use electric guitars in their alignment, other than for the solos, those riffs that are you hearing come from two basses, an eight string hand made bass which is played by Makis and a normal four string played by Magus. As the album goes on Necromantia becomes even more weird, the use of many instrument is present such as saxophones, acoustic guitars, and so on. Something curious about all this is that none of these instruments ever take the spot light, they are just to make the listener experience something out of this world, and this works every time the album goes off, it never gets old. As mentioned before the music never gets old, the riffs are pretty unique, especially the ones in black mirror which is my all time favorite song of Necromantia, the drumming is pretty good although I'm still not sure if it's actually human or a drum machine, sometimes sounds machine, sometimes human perhaps is a combination of both. The solos that are found throughout the album are extremely good, especially the bass solos, it shows how proficient Makis is with the bass and how creative he is. The guitar solos are also extremely good, especially the one found in Spiritdance it gives the song a very Mediterranean touch. This album also has a lot of symphonic moments and none of them ever take the front, besides the one on the second part of Pretender to the throne where is used the Ride of the Valkyries as an intro, this is true art! Everything in this album blends so well that is not surprising that once somebody listens to it, it will get addicted to it and it will be something joyful to listen time after time. The production is also pretty neat, flat I would say, no instrument is played over the other, the riffs can be heard with no trouble at all. This album would sadly be the climax of Necromantia, after it they never recorded something as especial and no band has never got as close to release an album as different, surprising, and perfect as this one.

From every angle this album is seen it can't be seen just as a piece of music, but as a monument of art dedicated to the dark side. Everything here is played close to perfection, nothing is missed, not even the lyrics which are very entertaining and some of them talk about many of the myth and stories of Hellas and its ancient tribes.




















Necromantia - Scarlet Evil Witching Black