NECROVOROUS

It's been pulverized (pun intended) into quantities of fine powder of a volume sufficient to burn in a combustion unit, generate steam, and spin the turbines at your local power plant long enough to light your entire town for a week. That's how much old-school Swedish style death metal we've heard from new and old bands alike this past couple of years. So what's your point? Oh right, death metal has always been about wheel reinvention, right? Wrong. New twists are always welcome and the progressive end of the range has its dedicated enthusiasts, but if a band follows an established blueprint with gusto, songwriting skills, and a little personality, then a problem there is not. If you're a fan, then you've been treated to a multitude of above average releases that have done the style proud, not to mention at least a handful of top notch ones. Add NECROVOROUS' "Funeral for the Sane" to that list of top notch albums. In this case it is old school, usually Stockholm-oriented death metal done right by a Greek outfit.

The rightness done is heard in NECROVOROUS' deft mix of styles borrowed from GRAVE and early ("Left Hand Path") ENTOMBED, as well as AUTOPSY and a smidgeon of "Scream Bloody Gore"-era DEATH. How in the world could you go wrong here? You can't. "Funeral for the Sane" is strong from top to bottom; there isn't a track on here that smells even vaguely like mediocre muddle stew. That goes for the organic, rough-hewn production, including a gnarly riff tone. The recording, mixing, and mastering of Harry Zourelides at Feedback Studios is to be commended; maybe not the cat's meow, but close to it.

The death is often two-beaten and rotten, and the doom elements crunchy, mucky, and fetid. Pick any cut and you'll be chuffed; and that includes creepy keyboard intro "Sanity's Fall". Right out of the gates the romp 'n stench of "Succubus Dormitory" screams "Stockholm" and from that point on not a beat is missed or a listener yawn detected. That includes a grand finale of sorts, the no-holds-barred filth of "Dwellers of My Flesh", which crushes with its gallops, lacerates with its solos, crunches with its doom marches, and chills with an organ-accompanied asylum roast to the demented. Incidentally, that doom-infected organ reappears in all its awesomeness during "The Vilest of All Dreams". You want straight up, death-rattling roll ala GRAVE? Look to "Malignant Entrapment", also notable for its flawless, spine snapping shift to quick paced and hotly soloed. You want some AUTOPSY fries with that GRAVE? Try the title track, which features a transition to a final minute of hellacious mid-tempo, frost hammered riff-groove.

One question remains. What's not to like? No boundaries breached and no album-of-the-year awards. "Funeral for the Sane" is just a kick-ass, old-school death metal album. Buy with a vengeance, die hard, and leave a flesh eating corpse.