all things old school: September 2021

Monday, September 13, 2021

NEKROMANTHEON - Visions Of Trismegistos

Location: Kolbotn, Norge
Release: Hells Headbangers, 2021

Behold the beast of 2021, bringing inspiration from ancient Egypt and Greek mythology to their old school Death/Thrash harder-than-ever sound, NEKROMANTHEON is on top of their game after 9 years since the last album came out.

This thing is so damn evil that it can blow a priest's head off just by listening to the opening riff, a true shredding machine working 32 minutes at high voltage. It's even more maddening to think they're just 3 dudes raising all this hell, so how they came up with this monstrous album "all the sudden" you may wonder?

They first appeared on my radar after they were featured in the sick SPEED N' SPIKES split series by Relapse Records around 2008 alongside other select Thrash acts such as Abigail, Rammer and Toxic Holocaust. Besides the killer music, all 5 split 7-inches forms a nice zombie-themed cartoon painel.


After that they recorded 2 stellar full-lengths and won the Norwegian equivalent to Grammy in 2012, the Spellemann Awards! Taking in consideration this background plus the fact they started in 2005, it all falls into place when you listen to Visons Of Trismegistos. In 2019 Duplicate Records came forward and re-released their awesome first EP We're Rotting with a bunch of extra tracks from splits and compilations, which is the version you'll be getting here.

[We're Rotting LP + Speed N' Spikes Series]

Friday, September 3, 2021

NO LONGER AT EASE - Demo

Location: Charlotte, USA
Release: Self-Released, 2021
Artwork: Haleigh Cunningham

More demos coming your way! This one was suggested by Devin from Rejection Pact, I'm talking about North Carolina's NO LONGER AT EASE and their 4-song debut work.

As the first track progress my expectations about the band's main influence (due to name choice) were confirmed, you get strong vibes of late BEYOND and BATTERY.

Their background consist of 2 bands: the youthcrew band Substance and the fast and pissed Fading Signal. They took a bit of that rage out and added some melodic riffs, a formula that had a secure home in labels like Rivalry Records, thus bringing a lot memories back.

Such a strong start always raise the bar for whatever comes next, let the folks at React! hear it to see it skyrocket!