Necros Christos - Doom of the Occult

Necros Christos - Doom of the Occult
Year of Release - 2011
Label - Ajna Offensive


Germany's Necros Christos has been around for ten years now and Doom of the Occult is the band's second full length album and follow up to Triune Impurity Rites from 2007. This album though was my encounter with the band and i have to say right at the start, this is some really impressive extreme metal.

If I was forced to classify the band's sound, then death-doom would probably be a fair term. However, what makes this band special is the sheer depth in their songwriting and the ability to invoke an atmosphere of doom and darkness while still retaining an element of catchy songwriting where importance is given to hooks and grooves and making each song memorable.

The band write these heavy but slow riffs that have a tendency to get stuck in your head with hypnotic effect and while the songs can get oppressively heavy they're broken up by these short instrumental pieces that vary between Eastern folk and eerie choral pieces. The result is an album that never gets monotonous and manages to retain interest right through its 73 odd minutes of playing time. Case in point is the 20 odd minutes right in the middle of the album starting with Invoked from Carrion Slumber which is a mid paced classic death metal song that sounds like a doomy Morbid Angel followed by Gate 2 which is a delicate acoustic piece that's very Egyptian sounding followed by Temple tx.99 which retains the Egyptian flavour but with an eerie synth before the massive and ominous opening riff of album highlight Doom of Kali Ma - Pyramid of Shakti Love - Flame of Master Shiva kicks off and the band are back to sounding completely heavy and powerful.

Imagine a slow Morbid Angel with pronounced Celtic Frost influences or a far superior version of Dead Congregation and you'll be close to what Necros Christos does on Doom of the Occult. This is massive, heavy music but at the same time it's also very well thought out and superbly written while managing to sound completely original.

Death metal album of the year? Probably too soon to tell but it's going to take an absolute classic to topple Doom of the Occult from it's current pedestal.