Of the 14 bands named Purgatory in the Metal Archives this is the one from Germany.  No, the other one from Germany.  The Death Metal one.  Kidding aside, Purgatory is far from an uncommon name for a Metal band (19 if you consider the bands that used wear the name), even less so for a Death Metal band.  To truly rise above such a common moniker, one would think a band would have to work pretty damn hard to create some seriously special material to help them stand out from the pack of like-named troops, and while Purgatory’s sixth album Necromantaeon may not be the one that’s going to propel them into the spotlight as the only Purgatory in the minds of the masses, it’s a rock solid slab of hard hitting German Death Metal.

Purgatory do what they do well, and have for nearly 20 years now, so you have to respect a band that keeps with it for that amount of time, while also, perhaps, wondering why it is that they never managed to make more of a splash.  The problem is that Necromantaeon, as with much of their back catalogue, while certainly not generic, does suffer a bit from a sense of the overly-ordinary.  They play good Death Metal, surely superior to many bands of greater renown who happen to have in their ranks some bold print names, but it rarely rises above the level of just “good”.  Vocalist Mirko Dreier possesses a powerful, deep roaring bellow reminiscent of a cross between Immolation’s Ross Dolan and Vader’s Piotr Wiwczarek, and “Reaping the Diseased” is an absolutely pummeling track; vicious and fast as hell.  Later-era Vader is a good point of reference for Purgatory’s sound, with punishingly heavy blasting sections alternating with more gallop-paced thrashiness.  A very full, highly proficient production and mixing job on the album delivers an extremely polished, professional sound without completely falling into the unfortunate pit of emotionally devoid, detached inorganicism befalling much of modern Death Metal these days.  The immensely heavy “Glorification of the Lightbearer” blazes along and nicely displays the talents of lightning fast drummer Lutz Götzold, and “Downwards into Unlight” features some impressive riffs over pleasingly grooving rhythms.  All said, other than a few bright moments of darkness, much of Necromantaeon passes by without much in the way of standout brilliance.  By no means a bad album, one that certainly does not lack for intensity, and one that fans of Vader can easily utilize it to satiate their appetites in between the Polish outfit’s releases, it does fall short of true excellence.

TRACK LISTING

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*Comments:

1.  Arrival of the Undivine
2.  Reaping the Diseased
3.  Where Darkness Reigns
4.  Glorification of the Lightbearer
5.  Downwards into Unlight
6.  Scourging Blasphemies
7.  Calling the Grand Destroyers
8.  Necromantaeon
9.  The Collapse of Tides

Total playing time:  32:31

Release Date: February 4, 2011
Label: War Anthem Records

Purgatory - Necromantaeon

Reviewer: J. A. Burt

September 15, 2011