Asphyx is from the days when slower death metal did not necessarily mean castrating all of its energy in favor of downtuned grooves. There was always something blunt and effective about Asphyx and that certainly is the case on ‘Necroceros’ as well. But at the same time, there are little sophisticated touches in Paul Baayens’ guitar work most prominently that make ‘Necroceros’ far more memorable than the average old school doomy death metal album. That is exactly what makes ‘Necroceros’ an album that is better than what any band in the same phase of their career can even begin to imagine.

Ever since releasing their surprisingly good reunion album ‘Death… The Brutal Way’ in 2009, reliability has been key for Asphyx. After all, Asphyx has a well-established core sound. While they have often been categorized as doom/death, I think that moniker gives off the wrong impression. Yes, there are plenty of slow and midtempo riffs that would not have sounded out of place on a traditional doom metal record if they were tuned slightly higher, but there is too much uptempo material on their recent albums that almost has a punk mentality to limit Asphyx to the doom tag.

On ‘Necroceros’, Baayens adds some melodic lead guitar parts and almost symphonic guitar arrangements that extend the listeners’ attention spans. Don’t get me wrong: ‘Necroceros’ is still full of blunt riffs and Martin van Drunen’s high-pitched, hoarse growl is the only vocal approach. But take ‘In Blazing Oceans’, which is full of dramatic chords and lead guitar themes that wring all the emotion out of just a few notes, creating a desolate atmosphere that perfectly fits the lyrics. Similarly, ‘Three Years Of Famine’ starts out as a doom metal track with a riff highly reminiscent of OverKill’s ‘Skullkrusher’, but ends in an equally haunting coda.

When Asphyx goes for the unsubtle kick in the face, they are just as effective. ‘Botox Implosion’ is uptempo and enjoyably aggressive, opening track ‘The Sole Cure Is Death’ surprisingly complex by Asphyx standards with each tempo change bringing a new climax and ‘The Namless Elite’ destroys everything in its path, while there are plenty of doomy stompers, such as ‘Mount Skull’, the Bolt Thrower-esque ‘Molten Black Earth’ and the slow, crushing title track that closes the album. Combining the uptempo aggression with dramatic chord work also works wonders, as is evidenced by ‘Knights Templar Stand’ and ‘Yield Or Die’.

It has been a while since a death metal album impressed me this much. In fact, the most recent one may even have been Vader’s ‘Welcome To The Morbid Reich’ a decade ago. There are only a few ways you can go with generally slow to mid-tempo death metal, but Asphyx truly got everything out of their core sound on ‘Necroceros’. While the band doesn’t really do anything new on ‘Necroceros’, they manage to do everything they are good at just slightly better than usual. For what it’s worth: I think it might be even better than ‘Last One On Earth’ and ‘Death… The Brutal Way’.

Recommended tracks: ‘In Blazing Oceans’, ‘Knights Templar Stand’, ‘Three Years Of Famine’