Review Summary: Lifeless? That's for sure...
2024 has been a goldmine for great death metal. There has been multiple noteworthy releases for the genre and we aren't even a full quarter into the year yet. Sadly, not every band in the genre can create an all time banger and Necrot's newest album
Lifeless Birth falls very firmly into the "meh" category.
Nothing here is particularly bad. In fact, these guys come off as a very cohesive unit overall. Their debut was an absolute ripper full of heavy hitting riffs and monstrous vocals and a filthy atmosphere.
Lifeless Birth tries to take the same kind of approach but the album name itself is a good indicator of the music itself. Lifeless. The riffs here are mostly midpaced chugs with little variety or excitement. The drumming, while proficient, doesn't inspire much outside of the normal blasting and filling typical of the genre and just ends up sounding stagnant. Like I said, there's nothing here that is so offensive that you'll want to shut it off but you also won't find yourself clinging to any moment that makes you want to return to this album more than a couple times. Vocals here are, once again,
pretty good, but lack the appeal of death metal vocalists with more range and are way too one note to be anything more than just decent.
Another big downer for me personally is the production job. When attempting to make an OSDM album in modern times, you need to have production that sounds dirty and as if you're recording from inside a buried coffin. It doesn't have to be poor a la the early black metal scene, but having crystal clear production on an album of this ilk just completely defeats the purpose.
Lets face it, we can't all have our cake and eat it too. We have been spoiled with some amazing and possibly even "all time great" death metal so far in 2024. It would be irresponsible for fans to expect nothing but greatness in one year. There's bound to be some duds, and unfortunately, Necrot find themselves strongly placed in the dud category.
Lifeless Birth would probably be a good starter album for someone looking to get into death metal, but honestly, it holds little appeal outside of that. You're better off looking elsewhere for filthy hard hitting death metal in a year chock full of great releases.
