Swedish/HM2 death metal can come from anywhere these days. There are stellar bands in the style from France (Iron Flesh), Japan (Heteropsy), Greece (Abyssus), Chile (Soulrot), Russia (Wombripper), Germany (Lifeless), Czechia (Brutally Deceased), Poland (Ulcer), Australia (Earth Rot), Venezuela (Nocturnal Hollow) and the USA (Sentinet Horror), just to name a few.

Newcomers, Necrogore are from Italy (who already have bands like Horrid and Eroded playing this style), and they play a pretty killer style of the genre. This is the band’s debut, but they have some singles and splits, as well as an appearance on the Dismember tribute album Dreaming in Red from 2024 (their song was “The God That Never Was”).

Once a genre that got me super excited immediately, not much over the last year or so has really grabbed my attention – even the 2025 releases from stalwarts Entrails, Lik, and Carnal Savagery barely registered with me. The last few bands that really impressed me were Come, Sweet Death, and Gravestone from 2023. But a couple of Spring/summer efforts here in 2026 might pull me back in; of course, there is the new Fleshcrawl, Xorcist’s Aberrations, and this gnarly debut.

With the moniker of Necrogore and song titles like “Leeches on My Dick” and “Forced to Eat Shit”, you’d be forgiven for thinking this power trio would be a porno/goregrind band, but they pull fully from the holy trifecta of Dismember, Entombed (the opening intro is a clear nod to “Left Hand Path”), and Grave.

The chainsaw guitar tone is spot on, as the band essentially states they created their own version of the HM-2 pedal, and the songs all deliver an excellent mix of the big three above. From the galloping, hacks ‘n’ slashes of “Forced to Eat Shit” and “Leeches on My Dick”, the punky blasts and gallops of “Offered to the Dead” and “Mediumistic Intercession”, the Grave-ish stomps of the instrumental title track, and “One Foot in the Grave” and even the more lumbering doomy, six+ minute “Sulphureal Morbid Corpse”.

The album ends with a fierce Swedish death metal reworking of  Jerry Lambert’s The Texas Chainsaw Theme, and only die-hard horror score fans will even recognize it.

A solid, promising debut from a young band paying homage to the elder gods, but still putting a bit of their own personality into things.

 

[Visit the band's website]

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