Review of Necronautical - The Endurance at Night

The reborn Cacophonous records continues to find solid new UK bands amid its quality reissues and deliver solid releases early into its reactivation. Not only did we have the impressive The Infernal Sea, Eastern Front, Old Corpse Road and The King is Blind with Necronautical , like label mates Old Corpse Road, we get something to remind fans of the label’s glory days with a heavily Cradle of Filth inspired symphonic black metal record.

It’s to listen to say opener “Pure Moon” especially the  3:25 mark and not think of Cradle of Filth or even incestuous sibling Hecate Enthroned. Add the nautical theme and you also get a heavy sense of Carach Angren‘s Death Came Through A Phantom Ship. Big, crisp, clean guitars, high pitched vocals, lots of sweeping gothic keyboards, and plenty of theatrics, corpse paint and militant uniforms. But it is done rather well and adds to 2016s surprisingly good year of symphonic black metal.

With one member serving in fellow UK black metal act Ethereal (Candlelight Records) there’s some experience  and confidence here and it shows. While the material is far from original its grandiose, blasting and suitably over dressed. It’s not ashamed of its influences, often wearing them full on their sleeve like a a bold  military insignia, I mean could the hawkish shriek that arises at 0:51 in “Spitzenkörper” be any less Dani Filth? Still though, there is a lot to like, especially if like me you like some symphonic black metal.

The 7 songs are a decent length, making for 52 minute run time that, while not commanding its a fun, maritime, symphonic black metal romp. You get some mid paced marches and some decent clean vocals like in “Oceanus Procellarum”, haunting atmospherics like the starts of the excellent, 11 minute “Strom” (followed by a pretty nice symphonic blast) and some pure orchestral ragers like the title track. There is even  slower, moodier track in closer “Theia”, which again imbues Cradle of Filth ( “The Black Goddess Rises”), and that’s OK. But with Dani Filth and Co aging, it might be time to groom a replacement and Necronautical certainly has the potential to be just that.