Review by Vladimir on June 2, 2024.

I personally rarely ever take a look at the bands who belong in the crust punk/deathgrind category, but I will admit that a lot of these underground acts certainly rule and play like crazy. Case and point is the band Necessary Death from South Bend, Indiana, with their independent self-titled debut EP Necessary Death releasd on October 7th, 2022, serving as a brief introduction to their style and sound which was further expanded with one split release in 2024. If you are into these extreme hardcore acts that give a really hard punch in the face, be sure to join me on this journey.

Necessary Death comes ripping with its violent and maniacal crust punk influenced deathgrind, with an incredibly furious attack that bursts out the rotten soil like a flesh-eating cadaver. Their entire output is expressed with guttural growling vocals, blast beat and d-beat drums, hardcore punk and tremolo picking riffs, always shifting left and right between the crust punk direction and the primary deathgrind. Musically it is a nice blend of various bands and styles, coming from examples such as early discography of bands like Carcass and Napalm Death, mixed with Skitsystem, Driller Killer and Disfear, but altogether represented in a very hardcore influenced Swedish death metal fashion. Each track on this EP is nothing but pure violence and rot, absolutely shredding everything to pieces with an over the top and merciless style, that it practically leaves no man breathing in the end.

Songwriting-wise is what you would expect from bands in this category, with a heavy focus towards simplicity and aggression, without relying too much on dynamics and variety in terms of ideas. This EP definitely provides plenty to enjoy and really make you go crazy, headbanging and moshing like a jackass on speed. The only thing that lets me down about this EP is how incredibly short it is with its total of 6 and a half minutes of length, which is due to the fact that every song on it is like a minute long or even less like 'The Face Of Privilege'. I know this is a very traditional thing to do, but I would have honestly preferred if they added at least double the amount of songs in the tracklist to prolong the runtime and expand the joy. It really is a bit of a downer when an experience such as this becomes so incredibly short-lived, but on the other hand, it really hypes you up for more action that you might get in some future time. Production-wise, this EP has a very 90's Swedish death metal sound with the HM-2 pedal tone, very reminiscent to the majority of Skitsystem's discography.

Although this was a short-lived experience, it was worth the while and it definitely got me intrigued to hear more from Necessary Death. The band has since released one split album with Noisy Neighbors called Retributive Justice on May 17th, 2024, and they are certainly not slowing down with their intense and impulsive deathgrinding action. If you are into bands like Skitsystem and Disfear, but you also dig some Swedish death metal and 80's grindcore, check it out, I am sure you will like it.

Rating: 7.8 out of 10