This is something of an enigma. Necrophagia formed in 1983 by vocalist Killjoy which could really make them the first death metal band. They however didn’t manage to release anything until this one which came out in 1987, the same year that the band Death put out their first record. I’d love to see who got their record out first! It’s hard to say as we don’t know what they sounded like when they first started but if this was any indication its actually quite a shame they didn’t stick around a bit longer than they did. The first Possessed album had a real thrash feel about it but this was a much darker more disturbing slab. The creepy keyboard intro really gave it the same vibe as some of the underground Italian horror movies from the late 70s / early 80s.
Like most of the early death metal albums this was recorded on a budget and the sound as a result is a little harsh but still well above the early efforts from Bathory, Sodom etc. This despite the recording quality is actually quite easy to listen to. Musically the band are quite decent as well, again putting it musically above a lot of the stuff that was going on at the time, and to be fair they wrote some quite catchy songs. As a whole this record is a pleasure to listen to and the guitar work especially stands out as quite varied and more accomplished than the other underground death / thrash bands that formed around the same time as they did. This is another band I don’t have a lot of their stuff, but after listening to this again for the first time in ages, I’m keen to start getting into more of a deep dive into them.
I’d also like to do a deeper dig into this band and figure out why they didn’t make more of an impact on the scene at the time. Maybe it did? I can kind of hear how bands would have been influenced by this, but no idea if they actually sold many records or if the other bands actually heard them. As a teenager I’d actually messaged singer “Killjoy” a few times and he seemed rather professional and always ready to promote his band and his record label.
Later records of Necrophagia seemed to attract some rather big names featuring Phil Anselmo, and other musicians from bands like Mayhem etc… so obviously the dude was well connected. Sadly Necrophagia mastermind “Killjoy” passed away in 2018.
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