Customer Reviews

EPITAPH

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I picked this album up on a total whim last Saturday. I just saw it sitting there, remembered that Lord Chimp gave it a positive review, and felt like I could go for some more death metal, so I picked it up. I'd been informed that this was tech-death, so I presumed it would be something like Suffocation or Cryptopsy or Nile or something along those lines. Nope. As I listened to this album that day two words kept coming to mind: Spiral Architect. Yeah, it's got growling and tons of double bass and blast-beats, but the actual guitarwork has little in common with anything else that I've heard classified as Death Metal. The guitar tone is sharp and clear and, frankly, not THAT heavy.(not light either, though...) The riffs are unimaginably fast and startlingly melodic much of the time, and the very frequent solos would not be out of place on a Dream Theater album. Though this is should be classified as death metal, the static and oppressive din associated with that style is nowhere to be found. Although the combination of straight up prog-metal guitar work and a death metal vocalist seems like an odd one, I think it actually works very well. Sometimes they may clash, but it's always pretty interesting, and not much like anything else that I've heard. As you'd presume from the description, the instrumentalists are of great skill. Odd rhythms and frequent tempo changes rule the day, though sheer blazing speed is most frequent tempo. The drummer draws less attention to himself than is typical in death metal and prog metal, but he's clearly very good, and he still provides the pounding rhythmic bass needed, even if he lacks some of the stylistic frills you'll often hear. The bassist is given a relatively prominent position, and he contributes nicely, particularly in the form of a few brief shredding leads. Sadly, the vocalist is pretty vanilla. An utterly generic death growl, not particularly good or bad. I think I slightly higher, shriekier voice would've worked better, but he's acceptable, if not terribly inspired.

There are a few other minor flaws. The most notable one is the guitar tone. It's not quite heavy enough. A conventional death metal tone wouldn't have worked at all, but they definitely could've beefed it up a bit without losing the the cleanliness and precision of the sound. Not a massive problem, but worth mentioning. Also, the leadwork could use a little more variety. It tends towards incredibly fast shredding. It all sounds good, but I like slower, moodier leads too, and those are in short supply here. It's tough to pick out standout tracks as there isn't much variety, but it's all good stuff. The absolute best track is the opener, Stabwound. It's got a bunch awe-inspiring solos and an utterly fantastic harmonized lead. The riffwork is spry and melodic and very memorable, too, and thus it displays all of Necrophagist's stylistic traits at their finest.

It's tough to say whether or not someone will like this. If you're only a Death Metal fan the relative cleanliness and melodicism of the guitarwork will probably turn you off, and if you're not a Death Metal fan the vox and drums will almost certainly annoy you. And even if you like both styles you may not think that the combination works. Still, if you are a fan of both, you ought to check it out, as that's obviously the only way you'll ever know.

I FINALLY got this album in the mail. And basicaly, it's one of the greatest death metal cds ever. This band is the definition of insanity. For a basic idea of what they sound like, think the greawt Spiral Architect with death metal vocals. It's just insane. This cd has TONS of depth. Very progressive. This band pushes the boundaries of death metal and then some. If you think of death metal as tons and tons of water piling up against a dam and raging against as hard and fast as possible then necrophagist is what happens when the water breaks free.

Insane. This cd will melt your mind.

Necrophagist = imagine Michael Romeo possessed by a demonic spirit and given an awesome death growl and writing incredible, technical, unique death metal music. Necrophagist is chaotic yet incredibly tight and refined, with sound production quality that is a cut above the death metal average. The sinister, virtuoso guitars leads are plentiful but not merely guitar wanking adhered to the arrangement. The songs are well-crafted and the band is an organic unit where different instrumental elements weave, join, and fracture. Song structures are wild, overflowing with shifting times signatures, herky-jerky rhythms, and with a level of finesse that summons the "thinking man's metal" tag ascribed to Spiral Architect, but with a brutality and intensity that could only be that of death metal. RECOMMENDED!

Rarely do I hear an album that impresses me so much on initial listings that I'm totally comfortable with calling it one of the best of its sub-genre within less than a month of owning it. However, that was the case with Necrophagist's Epitaph, a superb slice of technical death metal done right. Its not that Epitaph is the greatest death metal album
I've ever heard (could be one of them though), its simply that everything that makes great death metal great is present on this album.

Intricate songwriting, very tight playing and an and aggressive energy - Necrophagist have it all. The leads sound like John Petrucci on crack and the drums are some of the best in death metal. I wouldn't say that Epitaph is the most original death metal album but it has a sound of its own (albeit sounding like a more melodic Decapitated in places) and is executed so well that won't care much. Its not the heaviest death metal album I've heard due to the clean cut playing yet it makes up for it with inventive riffs and scorching lead work.

If your taste in death metal leans more to the technical side of things Necrophagist are absolutely essential while those who prefer their death metal more stripped down may find Necrophagist a little too 'nice' yet could still find plenty to enjoy. They don't have the same knock-you-off-your-feet feel of Immolation or Vader (you know, that dark atmosphere) so the purists of early style death metal may not be interested. With that said, anyone with a vague and open ended interest in death metal should (and almost certainly would) like this.

After hearing about the band from a friend who was blabbering on and on about how great they were, I became pretty skeptical about them. I visited their website (www.necrophagist.de) and picked up some of their free sample songs you can download there.

At first, I was blown away by some of the technical riffage but not entirely impressed. But, I decided to pick up the entire album and listened more to it. And slowly it sunk in, like an amazing movie that takes you a couple days to realize it was really great.

I listened to this album on my iPod for about 5 hours a day for a week straight. The riffage is so brutal and technical at the same time it puts a hold on you that; after not listening to a song for an hour or so, you've got an insatiable desire to listen to it again. The 'melodies' are so brutal and so skull-shattering in their precision that it's almost beautiful in a perverse, dark way.

I listen to a wide range of metal, from straight death to melodic or power. But this album is something not to be restricted to genres. The song structure can change quickly from melodic to speed death and back again leaving you throwing the horns in fanatical fury. I believe this band has a bright, bright future in front of them and this album will go down as a classic in metal history.

Easily a 5 out of 5. A *must own* for anyone looking for a fresh, brilliant type of metal that'll blow them away.

The guys from necrophagist can't be overlooked...I mean, they play deathmetal with a kind of melodism/great solos and rythm and whats more importand? They are original something, i always look for in any dm band i choose to listing to because bands that aren't original means they steal others riff meaning they dont know how to do their own music. Anyways, All of the songs are truly amazing and the technicality? Great! Other bands that might be in the same interest as necrophagist ? Cryptopsy, cynic, &, spawn of possesion. Now im not saying that they sound like those bands...Anyways get necrophagist's " epitaph" and you get an idea of how real music with talent sounds like, unlike your mortician, guttural secrete, gutrot, and few others. Recommended.

Necrophagist are not like any other technical death metal band that I've listened to in my life. They're definately one of the most insanely gifted and talented bands out there today. They have a sound that's brutal, insane, and very complexed, yet catchy and unabashedly melodic. Their second release from 2004 "Epitaph" (their first with Relapse records) is simply put one of the best technical death metal albums that I have ever listened to (the same can be said about "Onset of Putrefaction" as well). It's just beautifully insane, brutal, vicious and technically complexed and powerful I mean what else can I say, this album is truly an amazing piece of work. If you're a huge fan of technical death/progressive metal, then Necrophagist is definately your cup of tea, trust me, what you'll hear on this album will thrill you and amaze you. While Necrophagist's 1999 full length debut "Onset of Putrefaction" had vocalist/lead guitarist Muhammed Suicmez doing all the vocals, lyrics, guitars and bass, and programmed the drum machine, "Epitaph" has Suicmez joined by three bandmates in second lead guitarist Christian Muenzner, bassist Stephan Fimmers, and drummer Hannes Grossmann. There are only eight songs on the album, and this album is also fairly short clocking in at 32 minutes and 56 seconds, but really who cares? This album is still a beast, no questions asked. The lyrics are awesome and very intellegent, and the musicianship is stunning and jaw-droppingly amazing and incredible. Suicmez's growling vocals are just awesome on here throughout. His growls really remind me of Frank Mullen of Suffocation. The guitarwork by both Suicmez and Muenzner is definately the strongest point on here, it's simply incredible and off the hook throughout. The riffs are brutal and vicious, yet technically complexed, and the solos are just incredibly eye popping and mindblowing, they're almost like Dream Theater on crack. They also have that neo-classical feel as well, I mean they're just extremely melodic. Anybody who's very fond of guitar solos like I'am will definately love "Epitaph". Stephan really shines on here with his spectacular basslines especially on "Only Ash Remains", and "The Stillborn One". His bass tone on here is just sick. Hannes just dominates with his fierce, impeccable and perfectly timed blast beats and rattling, crushing double bass onslaughts with perfection throughout.

Like I mentioned before, there are only eight songs here, but I don't even find one bad song on here. To be honest, they're all keepers, but here are some highlights. "Stabwound" is an awesomely fierce opener (and one of my favorites on here) that features sharp thrashy riffs, mad racing blast beats, as well as some beautiful arpeggio lead fills and an amazingly melodic solo. Next up, "The Stillborn One" slows the album down a bit, although it does have some good fast paced sections which included some more walloping drums, and there's also some sweet prog-ish noodling bass work, and awesome trade-off solos that are definately tasty to the listener's ears. This song also features a section that is taken directly from the introduction of Ludwig Von Beethoven's "Fur Elise" which is very interesting. Next, we have "Ignominious and Pale" which is highlighted by more fierce and fiery drum blasting, killer growls from Muhammed, busy, furious crunching riffage, and another tasty, soaring, melody induced classical solo. The title track is my favorite song on here, and it's also one of my favorite Necrophagist songs as well, which is highlighted by mad, fiery riffs and busy, pounding blast beats and intense growling from Muhammed, and there's also a gorgeously wailing and memorable solo by Muenzner around 2:41 as well. I just love how it starts off slow yet very gorgeous and addictingly melodic, and then gets into more faster licks later on. That solo is definately on of my favorite solos by Necrophagist ever, it just makes my jaw drop every time I hear it. Track six "Only Ash Remains" is another awesome cut that opens up with a short but killer bass solo by Stephan, and it also features more excellent trade-off solo work by Suicmez and Muenzner, and there's also a piece of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet on guitar at the end which is very neat and cool, and the album closer "Symbiotic in Theory" is highlighted by mean, inhuman tech-death riffing in the early going of the song, and more savage, in your face, pounding drums, and another well-crafted and perfectly executed blazing melodic guitar solo, and the song ends with more relentless drum blasting and riffage.

Bottom line is, this is an absolutely beautiful and amazing album from beginning to end. I mean everything on this album from the brutal and ruthless vocals, to the brilliantly amazing guitarwork, to the relentless drumming, this album has absolutely everything a fan of death metal will love. Hey, I might not be a professional musician, but I do know a talented band when I hear them, and Necrophagist are truly one of the most extremely gifted and talented bands not just in technical death/progressive metal, BUT in metal period. If you've never even heard of Necrophagist, then you are seriously missing out on some incredible music, I'm sure glad I got into them, and they're already one of my favorites now. So anyways, if you're a big time fan of death metal technical death metal, progressive death metal, or even neo-classical metal, then by all means "Epitaph" is a masterpiece that should not be missed out on. Highly Recommeded!!

In the five-plus years I've been an Amazon reviewer, I've done whatever I could to sing the praises of technical metal. I certainly enjoy this new renaissance of the genre, but I feel the scene from 1987-1993 was more exciting because there were fewer bands (Atheist, Cynic, Mekong Delta, Watchtower, Fleming Rasmussen-era Metallica, etc.). Nowadays, there are tech metal groups popping up faster than Michael Jackson changes noses. Well, maybe not that fast. I'm by no means getting tired of it, but there's too much going on for me to keep up with.

One of the more exciting groups of this new renaissance is Necrophagist. Formed in the early 1990s by Turkish-German vocalist/lead guitarist Muhammed Suicmez, Necrophagist perfectly combines Tampa death metal with European classical music. Their second album _Epitaph_ owes as much to composers like Beethoven and Prokofiev as it does to death metal acts like Atheist and Death.

Even though I consider myself a novice at best when it comes to death metal appreciation, I can tell you _Epitaph_ is flat out astounding from beginning to end. Anyone who loves great guitar playing will find no shortage of it. The riffs themselves are faster and more intricate than the average power metal guitarist's leads. And those guys pride themselves on their leads. The leads here, while played with enough speed to escape a black hole, contain a fluid beauty not readily associated with death metal. But what's really impressive are the chord changes. I'm not a guitar player myself, but even I can tell that many of the changes here require sliding the hand from one end of the fretboard to the other in a matter of nanoseconds. Doing this with such speed and precision takes years of practice. To do it and make it sound effortless and clean takes ... well, superhuman ability.

Before I close out, I have a bone to pick. One of the big complaints I've noticed about _Epitaph_ has to do with the lyrics. Granted, the lyrics (and vocals) do take a backseat to the music. Yet even at their worst, Necrophagist still has a long way to go before they descend into what passes for "great" songwriting nowadays. It's not like they have songs like the one Limp Bisquick did in which Fred Durst brags about saying the F-word 50 times (does that even deserve to be dignified as a song?). So please, let's start worrying about the RIGHT things henceforth.

What is there to say? 'Epitaph' is THE album of 2004. Amazing technical prowess, tight songwriting, a bass guitar that is actually audible and, even better, extremenly skilled, this album has everything. The downside? The bass is audible and complex...the bass tone is downright ugly,

9.6/10

WOW this has to be some of the best technical death metal ever. its definitely better than their first album. muhammed has matured since then and has refined his style in this work.