Review by Rosh on April 5, 2022.

If you're going to criticize modern Old School Death Metal, then you could at least do yourself the service of taking your listening fare past Blood Incantation, Tomb Mold, and Necrot, and actually delving into the releases offered by so-called "oversaturated" labels like Dark Descent - because they have a lot of inspired and fresh bands with a slew of killer extreme metal. Of course, you wouldn't know that from jumping to conclusions and listening to surface level bands with a pre-determined mindset. No, you first have to appreciate what makes the source material a contemporary band takes influence from so tastefully executed and memorable. Bolt Thrower, for example, felt as psychologically thrilling and they did musically punishing. Grave integrated gore, blasphemy, and dark poetry into their lyrics while offering a filthier atmosphere than other Swedish bands. Morta Skuld mixed crude savagery with a more sophisticated and esoteric philosophical nihilism. A description like this could be written for just about every old school outfit that I hold in high regard, but as it happens, Plains Of Decay by Greece's Necrovorous is another example of superb and noteworthy execution. This band doesn't just have riffs, they have actual ideas that make every point I'm awarding this album feel earned like a rep of a good-form pushup.

Now, these ideas lend an interesting structure to the songs, where they begin with a somewhat thrashy death metal riff onslaught before dropping the slower hooks (see 'Cherish The Sepulture'), while at other times it's mid-paced fare that feels a bit like a marriage of the riffing of Bolt Thrower and Celtic Frost, both of whom executed chugging, mid-tempo progressions superbly. Bolt Thrower is a fairly obvious comparison because that's who most mid-tempo death metal gets compared to, but the comparison to the instrumentation of "Morbid Tales" is also evident, as there's plenty of "Return To The Eve" type sixteenth/eighth note combos that mainly switch between the same 3 or 4 power chords, as heard in 'Eternal Soulmates' and especially 'Psychedelic Tribe Of Doom'. The music here really feels like a rolling thunder, no doubt also thanks to the tremolo patterns sprinkled into the otherwise (again) thrashy death metal riffs.

Actually, even the really dirgey parts like most of 'Lost In A Burning Charnel Ground' feel driving in the way I want my doom riffs to be, like each note was carefully selected in the sense of early Black Sabbath. Now, sadly, the stringed instruments, with their infinite riffiness, sort of overshadow the percussion, to where it doesn't feel outstanding. Make no mistake, though - the drums still do their job more than adequately on Plains Of Decay. The vocals though, they're a one-size-fits-all glove for pretty much ALL the best OSDM gods! Just guttural enough to conjure "Mental Funeral" and "Into The Grave", but enough hoarse-yells are sprinkled in to remind you of anyone from Dismember to Jungle Rot! This is definitely modern OSDM where the influence is palpable, and yet it feels like a generally befitting soundtrack to represent this era of the genre overall, with influences from Florida (with the thrash and overall rage), New York (with the guttural vocals and tremolo rfffs), and Scandinavia (atmosphere, baby!).

Plains Of Decay is what modern death metal needs a lot more of to stay fresh. It's no wonder people think OSDM is a dead style when the best they can come up with as a point of reference is half-decent Skeletal Remains clones. Necrovorous does death metal THEIR way, how many modern bands can say that?

Rating: 9.3 out of 10