The old roots are rotting slowly. There is no way but to face that the wounds of the past would never heal, they will keep on burning, stretching like leper, turning the inner soul into a foul creature of the abyss, all in the name of the mighty damnation. The necromancers are calling for blood, but who will answer them? That entity would have to be as maniacal as they are, hungry for souls and the blood of the innocents, admirer of all that is unholy and bestial. Maybe the Swedish Death Metal beasts, NECROCURSE, can be of some service. The problem is that they are the awaiting necromancers and they are beholding to welcome your soul to devour, so come along and feast upon the "Grip Of The Dead". This intro will probably stick to some new horror b-movie picture, but I am here to review so manuscripts later. Newly signed to Pulverised Records, the Swedes, led by the infamous NIFELHEIM founder and vocalist, Per "Hellbutcher" Gustavsson, along with various members of RUNEMAGICK, SACRAMENTUM and SWORDMASTER, distribute a profane, hot blooded, occult oriented Death Metal that might make a few demons shiver in dread.  With the debut, "Grip Of The Dead", NECROCURSE returns to the early days, to the roots of their evil, taking attributes of old school pioneers as MERCYFUL FATE, MORBID ANGEL, CRANIUM, POSSESSED, CELTIC FROST and of course NIFELHEIM, as if there isn't enough evil to divvy. Andy LaRocque, of the KING DIAMOND fame, knew how to treat these guys with a raw production and sound engineering, even bloodier than the works of his companion.

NECROCURSE proved that tradition is better off being filthy and soiled with blood rather than attributed to be polished clean. There is no white, nor black, just blazing red. Furthermore, their Death Metal, as it turned out, wasn't as pure as I thought. Following the heritage of their local extreme Metal scene, NECROCURSE turned the other wretched chick to slandering destructiveness of early Black / Thrash Metal, as raw as it can get, the better it reeks in the end. The large sum of "Grip Of The Dead" is all about this band running like speed demons, sucking the life out of riffs, bashing the skins with the same Punkish / Thrash dominion of snare / kick in full throttle and of course the butcher from hell standing right in the center chanting as if heaving loads of bile in such raspy tones that would be equal to some of the Norse Black Metal growlers. No doubt that these guys deliver the right vivacities to create such a blasphemous album. Aside to several melodic licks and a few interesting riffs crossing between Heavy, Thrash, Black and Death Metal, Rotting Vomitor & Mörda attacked with various stellar soloing, crying out for total mayhem in the name of the underworld and its minions. "Necrocurse" etched the true essence of original Death Metal. It wasn't quite inventive, but it burned me to near crisp. "The Devil Cobra" and "Coffin Breakers" are the totality of traditional Black / Thrash, no nonsense, just, speed, violence and hard edges of provocative extremity. "Infernal Rebellion", as if coming to finish what "Necrocurse" started reminding the roots to everything is Heavy Metal, on other hand, vile as it can be.

Nonetheless, NECROCURSE didn't impress as I would have liked. Such monotonous manifolds, repeating beats and rhythms that were tiresome like the same drumming style alleged to Punk, Hellbutcher's vocals that sometimes seemed way too droning and the overall feeling that "Grip Of The Dead" could have generated more promises than faults. Veterans or not, I didn't expect NECROCURSE to be inventing, but sucking the life out of themselves won't bring them home gold, or at least a head in a bucket. With their craze, they could be the next thing in the revamping old school. For a debut it is a solid entry, but I would like something more tormenting next time.