Necromantia - From The Past We Summon Thee
Review: These three songs are simple elements worked into ambitious but fundamentally simpleminded musical experiments. Low riffs squash together at a walking rhythm under whispering, chanted dark vocals.
Evil ambience pervades but the simple phrases of this work, in simple verse-chorus arrangements conveniently modified for periodic emphasis, are unequal to the task and leave the listener with a repetitive romp through projections of darkness. All instruments are competent but every element is limited to three pieces or distinctive subelements, forcing a patterning not unlike a dance into musical form.
The rhythm later established by this band and evolved in a higher development of this style is not there, nor are the ambitious guitar solos or harmonic variations. For lovers of melodrama and zombie movie effects however this album provides the redemption value easily in the dark and ludicrous but artistically conceived gestures of this early work.
These recordings are from some segment of the demo process and have been re-released by Wild Rags records in a limited run possibly to be renewed. Providing insight into the early aesthetic vision and limitations of Necromantia, this EP demonstrates the raw germinal essence of what would become a more majestic idea.