After some demos and EP of fairly standard Swedish death metal, Necrophobic morphed into a black/death act and released a handful of pretty revered albums in 1993’s The Nocturnal Silence, 1997’s Darkside and 1999’s The Third Antichrist.
However, it’s 2002’s Bloodhymns that I will always have a soft spot for, being one of my very early reviews for Digitalmetal.com, one of the last albums to feature a Sunlight Studios/Tomas Skogsberg production and a damn fine album to boot, with “The Art of Rebellion” still being a regular track I play and enjoy over 10 years later. I thought 2006s Hrimthursum was a bit of a let down and never heard 2009s Death to All, and frankly thought the band was done.
Well here we are 4 years after Death to All, and lone original member Joakim Sterner is back with a scorcher of an album that harkens back to the band’s glory days. Even though a bit over drawn at 68 minutes and 14 songs with some filler here and there, a majority of Womb if Lilithu is crisp, razor sharp black/death riffage glossed with an evil sneer and some pretty blistering riffage and a few keys/atmopsherics here and there. Overall, it’s a fine, fine album with confident, classic song writing and a slick black sheen.
The tracks vary between stern / atmospheric marches and more blistering, slicing numbers. Some are littered with a few clean, but fitting hymnal croons and some synths, but for the most part, the album is all about riffs and more riffs and it seems to have some lineage to Bloodhymns in both quality and intensity. Standouts include “Astaroth”, stomping “Furfur”, “Splendor Nigro Solis”, personal favorite “The Necromancer”, moody “Opium Black” and dramatic penultimate track “Infinite Infernalis”. There are some solid but overly long throwaway tracks like “Asmodee”, “Black Night Raven”, “Marquis Phenix” or “Matanbuchus”, but certainly nothing bad or sub par.
You do get your money’s worth with Womb if Lilithu however, as I mentioned, the album is 68 minutes long and 12 of the 14 tracks are actual tracks with only opening and closing instrumentals, so you get about 63 minutes of actual metal riffs, even if some seem a bit by the numbers, there’s enough above average material to warrant your time.
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Haven’t given this one enough attention yet but it sounded pretty solid on initial spins late last year.
on Jan 16th, 2014 at 03:20This album is perfect. It’s hard to describe, literally every song is a hit. You need to listen to it at least several times, though. All these reviewers that gave it low score must have listened to it with their anuses, not ears.
on Jan 17th, 2016 at 17:44