Necronomicon - The Return Of The Witch (2010)

After an absence of 6 years, we finally get a new release from Canadian Necronomicon. Since the impressive “The Sacred Medicines” the band has been lurking in the shadows, but finally they make their big label debut with “The Return Of The Witch” out on Napalm Records.

Necronomicon combines straight-up Death Metal with some melodic influences. However, the band sounds nothing like all the Melodic DM bands these days. Their music is very brutal and less flashy than other bands. They have also added some minor Black Metal influences in the riffing, but nothing major and it’s just to enrich the band’s brutal sound.

The best thing in this album for us is the use of haunting choir sections. The movie “The Omen” comes straight into our heads when we listen to the children-sounding choir sections, and sends chills to our spines immediately. This gives the album a very diabolical feeling that most bands fail to capture. We also love that this choir sections are never abused, and let the music stay brutal through the whole release.

The riffing in “The Return Of The Witch” is like on most top-notch DM release, with catchy hooks and crushing melodies we can’t really complain in this department. The bass guitar is also very traditional of a DM album, allowing it to take the spotlight in different sections of songs through the album.

Mr. Rob "The Witch" Tremblay does a great job in providing deep sounding growls that sometime remind us of Ross Dolan of Immolation (among others). He also handles the guitar duties, making him pretty much half the band. The use of keyboards in some places (like on “Necropolis”) is very well exploited in order to create an even more haunting experience for this release.

The overall sound of the music is very traditional for a DM release; so many people might argue that there is nothing new or special about this album. But like we think the little details, like use choirs, keyboards and clean vocals, is what gives this release that extra edge over the countless DM albums that get released every year.

If you like DM with a twist, go and get this brilliant release since it features elements that take the monotony of DM release away and transport you into a very haunting place. We expect more and better from this band in the future, so be sure to check them out.

Release: June 8th, 2010

Country: Canada