In Memories of Fire Review

Band	Nekroholocaust
Album	In Memories of Fire
Type	Album (Studio full-length)
Released	July 1, 2005
Genres	Black Metal, Death Metal
Labels	Mercenary Musik
Length	52:39
Ranked	#52 for 2005 , #1,859 all-time

Reviewer :  똘복이         Rating :  90 / 100

굉장히 거칠고 폭력적인 블랙/데스메탈. 만약 정말로 앨범에 적혀있는대로 이 사운드가 87~88년도의 리허설, 라이브 음원을 복각한게 맞다면 아마 미국 블랙/데스메탈에 있어서는 조금은 그 역사를 수정해야 하지 않을까? 수정은 안하더라도 최소한 선구자나 당시의 대표적 밴드로 이름이 거론되어야 함은 맞다.

여하간 '알려진바로는' 이 밴드는 마지막 미팅(합주)후 1989년도에 해산돼었으며 그동안의 몇차례의 녹음물과 라이브 음원등을 복원한 앨범이다.

문제는 그 음악 자체가 가진 블랙/데스나 워메탈 적인 완성도가 상당히 대단했던고로 여러 포럼에서 정말로 그때 이런 밴드가 있었고 정말로 당시에 연주됀 음원인가! 하며 논란이 벌어졌었다.

물론 이 밴드의 전신인 necropaghia는 wild rags에서 ep도 발매했었기 때문에 그 흔적이 명확한 밴드이지만 그 이후 밴드 멤버들(이 밴드에서 활동한)의 활동은 1990년 말부터 갑자기 다시 시작돼었기 때문에 정말 아무런 흔적을 찾을 수 없는 이 Nekroholocaust의 마른하늘에 뚝 떨어진 똥덩어리같은 컴필레이션 앨범은 매니아들의 궁금증을 자아내기 충분했다.

하다못해 메탈아카이브, rateyourmusic에 같은 글을 쓴 리뷰어가 있는데 아래와 같다.

"Composed of rare tracks recorded '88-'89? My fucking ass it is. If any of this was recorded before 2000 I'll rip my dick off. The music on display here is more advanced than Profanatica and supposedly predates it, which would make this literally one of the earliest USBM records ever made, predating Profanatica and Havohej and just barely being recorded after 'Deathcrush' came out the previous here. The blasting is too fast, the songwriting is too modern in a number of ways, and even the production techniques are suspect. There's zero chance the story behind this is true- but of course it's not going to be confirmed because the members all wanted to 'remain anonymous' (probably because it's actually kids who were still in elementary school in the late '80s). I hate this sort of shit.

Fortunately, I don't have to fight my initial revulsion at how lame that promotional technique is because the music sucks as well. Nekroholocaust is a sloppy mixture of Profanatica and 'De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas', trying to do the brackish black/death of the former with the more defined melodic development of the latter. There's a dose of thrash here, which tends to be annoying when it's grating against the more obviously modern black metal, but it doesn't really matter because the songwriting itself is horribly sloppy and hackish. Riffs link together arbitrarily (although they're rendered practically inaudible by the sheer amount of reverb and delay on the guitars anyway), vocals lazily rant without any sort of rhythm or real intensity, and even the drums just seem pretty random. This would be lame if it was a demo, but this is an actual album getting released on what used to be a fairly prominent USBM label. What the fuck, really?

There's a transparent, juvenile attempt at grimness that permeates this album completely, from the dreary wall of fuzz production to the overwrought and imprecise vocals. Nekroholocaust desperately wants you to believe that this is some hidden gem of USBM unearthed just for you, but in attempting to create this weird mythos instantly shoot themselves in the foot because most of the black metal being released in the late '80s didn't suck this bad. Hell, trying to shoehorn in music that sounds more like the late '80s is one of the things that handicaps this so badly- the band honestly does better when they're just doing modern black metal and not jamming thrash riffs and rhythms in where they shouldn't go for credibility. If they hadn't done that... well, it wouldn't have been a GOOD album, but it would be a whole lot less obnoxious.

Basically the US version of Nargaroth, but these guys aren't even amusing characters. Fuck it."

이에 대한 반론으로

"Well, first of all I must say this Noktorn guy must be a real 'Hater" since he wrote the exact same review on Encyclopaedia Metallum!! Maybe these guy's are good?? since he is trying so hard to discredit them!! so I bought the CD and listened to it myself as a reasonable person searching his own truth would do and what I found was astronomical maniac chaos that is profound for the time and place in which it was made.

Now I must say that I am 42 years old and lived in that time and place where these guy's originated from. I knew of them but never saw them live but I heard of shows they performed with Sadistic Intent and Scrilege B.C. and other great underground bands of the time. What I heard was that they were brutal and young and innovative but that was all. Nekroholocaust from the info that I have gathered were formed from the ashes of Necrophagia L.A. which recorded the "Great Demo" It began with a Twisted Dream" released in 1986. Two members survived and formed Nekroholocaust and took a turn from Great American Thrash to more of a Euro Black Death sound, which is what you hear on this CD. This source that I am refrencing was actually at this recording session and by his own words 8 of the 9 tracks were recorded live in a studio on 1 take with no overdubs frills or thrills. Just straight forward from the heart shit!! And that is exactly what you hear on this recording.

I know for a fact that this Band existed in 1988-89 through my own recollections and thru my friends eyewitness accounts of this incredible yet in parts shit sounding recording. I will spare you the details as far as breaking down the songs other than to say songs 4-7 and 9 are some of the most epic and intensity filled pieces of Death that was around at that time, I know of no other than maybe Mayhem and Morbid Angel who were attempting this. The Vocals on these songs in particular are superb for the time and the screams are to be heard to be believed. Why this previous Reviewer would discount them so easily as to be the norm is ridiculous.

I was left with a lasting impression, what if this band had stuck together and actually had a budget and studio time to really put this thing together?? Earth Shattering perhaps, controversial and memorable to say the least."
라는 주장도 있다. (뭐 확인할 수야 없다만...)

진실은 저너머에 있겠지만, 요는 이 음악이 블랙/데스메탈 매니아들에겐 정말로 끝내주기 때문에 일어났던 소동인건 분명하다.