Like a bolt of lightning piercing your eardrums, Texans Necrofier have returned to deliver their blistering third full-length called Transcend Into Oblivion. Twelve saber-toothed tracks of prime USBM, and let me tell you friends and neighbors, it’s a fucking wild animal.

There’s nothing better than a solid banger Black Metal album, and that’s what Necrofier has unleashed upon the world this time around. It’s safe to say I’ve never heard them before, so as usual, I’m just dropped into the fray and forced to fend for myself. I’m comfortable with it by now.

This is a long album. Twelve tracks in 57:53 minutes. If the album sucked, it would be a slog to get through; fortunately, it doesn’t suck, so the length is quite all right, not to mention the musical acrobatics that these crazy Texans are demonstrating.

“Fires of the Apocalypse, Light My Path I” bursts out with reckless intensity, sounding a bit Enthroned-ish… Skullthrone of Satan era… if you know, you know. “Fires of the Apocalypse, Light My Path II” blasts like there’s no tomorrow, going for a Nightside Eclipse/ Defending the Throne of Evil vibe that works perfectly.

“Fires of the Apocalypse, Light My Path III” follows up with some Gorgoroth intensity, the fantastic production making everything hit hard and fast as a Texas rattlesnake. The cascades of blast beats fall on your head like steel rain.

There are layers to Transcend Into Oblivion. “Behold, the Birth of Ascension” is an ethereal track with spare piano and some fucking ominous atmospheric melodies that creep into the mix later on. “Servants of Darkness, Guide My Way I” begins with some savage blasting before it slows down for a few beats, then ramps up the attack some more. “Servants of Darkness, Guide My Way II” is a blast furnace of fury and blasting drums… until the four-minute mark, and it turns into a hypnotic acoustic track in the blink of an eye.

“Servants of Darkness, Guide My Way III” fires its afterburners and doesn’t let up, that is, until the utterly mesmerizing “Mystical Creation of Enlightenment” sounds very Ulver-ish, circa Kveldssanger and Bergtatt.

“Horns of Destruction, Lift My Blade I” gets a bit raw and dirty, more of a Carpathian Forest Defending the Throne of Evil vibe, even Morbid Fascination of Death. “Horns of Destruction, Lift My Blade II” is a bit of a Black Thrasher with a sick as fuck riff that twists its way throughout the song, a musical earworm if I might say so.

“Horns of Destruction, Lift My Blade III” plows along with more crazy drum patterns than you can shake a tree at. It’s a bit mid-paced, in between enormous bursts of speed, of course. It gets quite spastic towards the track’s end, echoing some Cradle of Filth from Cruelty and the Beast.

“Toward the Necrofier” is a sonic hellscape. Filled with the corpses of unsuspecting listeners. It’s hauntingly beautiful and savage at the same time; a complex marriage of searing Black Metal and Industrial Black Metal.

I suppose you could say that the third time is the charm because this is a killer album, yet another band to go back and raid their back catalog. So if you like Carpathian Forest, Cradle of Filth, and Enthroned, then you should be tripping over yourself to get it. Hurry up!

[Visit the band's website]

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