Genres: technical death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: NECROPHAGIST, Obscura (Omnivium)
Country: Germany
Release date: 9 February 2024
Hannes Grossmann had enough after twenty years and whipped out the old thumb drive with Necrophagist 3 on it: need I say more? Well, I guess that’s not the full story—Echoes of Eternity is essentially three Necrophagist songs, an Obscura song from Omnivium, and a Blotted Science song, the last of which was actually composed for Blotted Science and just never released by that band. However, I reckon all four of the other tracks are a bit more than “tributes.” Right, Hannes? *wink*
Yep, “Retrospective Monolog” sounds right off of Epitaph with lead guitar lines that have me drooling, a bass solo that has me at full mast, and a frantic technicality that made me [redacted]. The track is short and sweet à la “Stabwound,” but it covers a ton of ground in part because it’s approaching the speed of light with as many noodling bass parts as my little heart desires. “Engraved in Their Shrouds” and “Enigmatic Shrines Consumed” follow the Necrophagist “tribute” (*wink*) formula to a tee with the incredible groove of the former and the inhumanly technical riffs of the latter. The highlight of all of Echoes of Eternity is the orgasmic guitar solo in “Retrospective Monolog” performed by Kevin Heiderich, with hyperspeed scales, strange effects, and the harmonizing coming through at the end enough to make a grown man weep. Just like Necrophagist twenty years ago, Hannes Grossmann is technical death metal for the riff-loving; the absolute quantity of quality riffs across this EP is staggering and part of why this feels like true Necrophagist tracks.
The other two tracks, “Echoes of Eternity” and “Humanoid Body Automation” are no less impressive although completely different in feel. Grossmann wrote several songs for Omnivium in 2011, and he clearly didn’t lose whatever instincts for songwriting he had then as he perfectly imitates the sound thirteen years later. We’re treated to the same eerie Kummerer lead sound, the intricate guitar runs, and the cavernous drumming of Grossmann, the maestro. If you showed me this and told me my CD copy of Omnivium was missing a track from a freak error all this time, I’d believe you, and that is the highest of praise for an album I hold in such high regard. Furthermore, if you missed the mad scientist insanity of Ron Jarzombek’s twelve tone serial composition in metal, fret not! Grossmann’s hand at it is convincingly genius with the same intricate, scurrying guitar parts and freaky atonality, replete with a guest solo from Fountainhead who is absolutely perfect for the unconventional style of Modernist technicality.
As I listened to Echoes of Eternity on repeat, all I could muster up for a review at first was “stupid, sexy Hannes.” I mean really, my guy’s songwriting is as absurdly tight as ever, and his stamina is still in tip-top shape: the guy can blast still. For real, Hannes Grossmann is one of the greatest of all time at the blast beat, and his varied grooves and punishing speed lay down the vertebrae for Echoes of Eternity, especially clear in the janky rhythms of “Humanoid Body Automation.” The rest of the cast Grossmann assembled for his EP also have capabilities beyond logical comprehension. Stephan Schulz has the perfect growls for this type of tech death, somewhere between Suiçmez himself and Nile’s Brian Kingsland; Kevin Heidirich’s lead guitar is plain stupid at his Suiçmez/Muenzner imitation; and Chief Mendoza lays down some incredibly boisterous basslines, as wildly unrestrained as Viraemia. I already mentioned two of the three guest soloists, but Justin Hombach of Eternity’s End also performs some classic shred befitting of such godly tech.
Not all is butterflies, rainbows, and mutilated stillborns sadly. Grossmann’s magic fingers, which mixed the stunning-sounding Numen for Alkaloid (our Subway album of the year, check it out here), did not translate the clear sound to his own release: Echoes of Eternity’s production is serviceable but leaves a lot to be desired. As the ensemble cycles through different instruments taking the lead, whichever has it at the moment is disproportionately emphasized in the mix, drowning the other instruments out despite their wicked backing. Godly songwriting takes Grossmann pretty far here, but technical perfection eludes him because of a deadened sound, somewhere between brickwalled and overly refined lacking the organic sound of the bands he is “imitating” (is it really pastiche if you’re a writer in those bands, too?). Also, Echoes of Eternity feels jarringly disjoint; however, this can easily be overlooked if we consider it as a summation of Grossmann’s career, but it’s worth mentioning nonetheless. The EP is awesome, yes; cohesive, it is not. Oh, and as a final criticism—what the hell is that album cover?
This would have been the pinnacle of technical death metal in 1999, but as I feared if Necrophagist’s third ever dropped, it’s simply been equaled if not superseded several times since then. That’s not to take away from Grossmann’s lovely tribute to the bands that shaped his career but to comment that perhaps this is the best case scenario of a third Necrophagist album. While a third album under that name would be doomed to disappointment after twenty years of edging, having Grossmann release a stunning tribute on his own takes away the pressure, and Echoes of Eternity is extremely fun because of that. A testament to both Grossmann as a musician and his growth after two decades in the scene and to the collectively beloved bands he’s played in, Echoes of Eternity is simply essential for the technical death metal lover, a retrospective look at the bands that initially made me fall in love with the genre, a beautiful summation of Grossmann’s twenty plus years at the forefront of technicality.
Recommended tracks: Retrospective Monolog, Echoes of Eternity, Humanoid Body Automation
You may also like: Blotted Science, Spastic Ink, Vomit the Hate, Alkaloid, Moral Collapse
Final verdict: 8/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: independent
Hannes Grossmann is:
Kevin Heiderich – Guitars, solos on tracks 1 and 3
Stephan Schulz – Vocals
Chief Mendoza – Bass
Hannes Grossmann – Drums
Fountainhead – Guest Solo on track 4
Justin Hombach – Guest Solo son track 2
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