Nordjevel - Necrogenesis
Osmose Productions
Black Metal
9 songs (47:15)
Release year: 2019
Osmose Productions
Reviewed by Goat

Following on from a good album and a very good EP with a couple of line-up changes, Norwegian mini-supergroup Nordjevel continue to improve. Joining bassist Dezepticunt (ex-Ragnarok) and vocalist Doedsadmiral (Doedsvangr) are drummer Dominator (The Wretched End, Odium, Dark Funeral, many others) and guitarist for pretty much everyone by now, Destructhor, who survived the fallout from Illud Divinum Insanus far better than the rest of that Morbid Angel line-up did! Both are more than solid additions to a line-up that was already hugely promising for fans of old-school, true-spirit black metal and it's no surprise that Necrogenesis rocks like the proverbial motherfucker. For every modern black metal band that pushes the genre outwards into increasingly dark and intensely atmospheric terrain, it's always good to hear a band that still kills the old way and Nordjevel are that and more.

Not everyone will applaud this spiritual return to the days when bands that went all-out were dismissed as 'norsecore' and the galloping battery of, say, Sunset Glow may have more than a sniff of World Funeral-era Marduk to it, yet the mix of serpentine twisting riffage and infectious groove is very well-crafted and Nordjevel avoid the samey-feeling of your classic sturm und drang black metal with little touches like the wild Watain-esque soloing of Devilry that really enhances the atmospheric impact of the track as a whole. As ever, you could go through the album and make little notes about which song was influenced by which artists, yet Nordjevel absorb their influences well enough that the hints of, say, earlier Behemoth in The Idea of One-Ness are smothered by the overriding darkness of Nordjevel's primary battering. There's more of the 'blackened Hail of Bullets' feel that I enjoyed from their EP to the grimly melodic mid-paced Black Lights from the Void, which could have cut a verse for extra leanness but the album is generally pretty good at avoiding fat in favour of full-flavour meat.

This is especially true once you get onto the superior second half of the album heralded by the torrential black/death blast that is Amen Whores, complete with a chorus that's probably hugely fun to scream out at a live show. The band seem to be trying to outdo themselves with the even faster and more vicious The Fevered Lands and Apokalupsis Eschation, contrasting well with the pounding groove of Nazarene Necrophilia between the two (which manages to keep its hypnotic quality without letting up on the catchiness). Yet it's eight-minute finale Panzerengel which impresses most, a well-placed orchestral interlude with backing war noises leading to a crushing final blackened thrash section. A little more of that inventiveness and Necrogenesis would have been truly special, but this is a more than solid black metal outing for the Norwegians (and Swede).

Killing Songs :
Amen Whores, The Fevered Lands, Panzerengel
Goat quoted 75 / 100
Other albums by Nordjevel that we have reviewed:
Nordjevel - Krigsmakt (EP) reviewed by Goat and quoted no quote
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