Description
Although it’s been a seemingly long five years since NEKROFILTH’s debut album, 2013’s critically acclaimed Devil’s Breath, that’s not to say the band have been sitting idly by. During that time, founding vocalist/guitarist Zack Ripper relocated from Cleveland, Ohio to Denver, Colorado and has been releasing a steady stream of split releases with the likes of CIANIDE, Gravehill, Butcher ABC, Weapönizer, and Necrocanibalistic Vomitorium. With a new lineup solidified, in 2017 did NEKROFILTH tease their anxious fanbase with three separate Bandcamp-only tracks forecasting Worm Ritual. Indeed, something was brewing…And what was brewing is a leaner and most definitely meaner NEKROFILTH. Here on Worm Ritual, the power-trio largely leave behind the juvenilia of their early work for real-world evil, upping the nastiness of their patented punk metal and reinventing it in a most respectable way. Naturally, NEKROFILTH’s foundational influences of Slaughter (Canada), NME, and Repulsion remain, but with a more overtly muscular aspect – and, most definitely, a more overtly METAL one – Worm Ritual bristles with a punch-in-the-face intensity backed up by enviously compact songwriting, nodding often to the likes of Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Possessed, and even a bit of Autopsy. One after another, the 15 songs comprising the half-hour Worm Ritual state their case swiftly and simply, each one a mini-anthem in itself: rarely has “saying more with less” been this vicious and violent. Fitting for these stronger songs, the album is wrapped in a righteously ’80s-style production, warm yet over-the-top, with prominent reverb and delay underlining where NEKROFILTH’s allegiances lay. The secret? Analog tape, just like their forebears used to do. And Venom, one of those forebears, receive a rough ‘n’ rowdy cover of “Poison” here. Above all, NEKROFILTH prove that “growth” doesn’t have to equate to selling/wimping out; if anything, they’re more extreme than ever. Perhaps not coincidentally, the album arrives
likewise push their own limits are hereby encouraged to engage in the Worm Ritual!
