With “Necrology Disorder” by the Indonesian (what else, right?) brutal death metal band Opium we’re going back in time back to 2010, when these skilled Bandung brutallizers released this – their only full-length – album to date.
One might wonder – with so many albums being released basically daily (or, if I don’t want to be accussed of exaggerating, let’s say weekly) basis, what’s the point of reviewing the album so old now?
The point is, my dear readers – the album is great. Nah, let me correct myself – the album is great! And in such a case, it would be criminal not to mention it here in Indokult.
Released by the well known quality label Extreme Souls Production, “Necrology Disorder” contains 10 tracks (9 + beautiful outro), sung in Indonesian in English.
Now, as it’s basically a standard in the Indonesian brutal death metal circles, the productions and the songwriting is of a high standard, the bonus in my book are the unexpected (for the BDM genre) melodic passages (for example in “Kodrat Sunda Nepi Binasa”, “Destruction Above Be Collapse” or – probably my personal favourite, “Necrology Disorder”), which makes the album even more likeable and standing out in the fierce competition. And if you know anything about brutal death metal, then you know that Indonesia is probably the number 1 for the quantity of BDM bands, so the competition is indeed real and intense.
Personally, although my interest in music ranges from the harsh noise to anything mainsteram poppish, in metal I always welcome stuff with at least a hint of melody in it. There’s not really a ground to argue – you can only play brutal to some extent, until you sound as a gazzillion of other bands. Luckily, Opium managed to create the album, which won’t be as memorable as the loved and revered classics from the 1990s only because of the timespan we devote to listening to a particular album. Otherwise, this one is has the solid 3 Fs: it’s fantastic, fresh and f’kn (I’m censoring myself here, haha) interesting. And even when the band line-up has changed since that album has been released, it stands as the witness for the great metal coming out from Bandung.
The band still has its presence on Facebook (although long time no updates, the last one is from 2014!), and although the album is sold out, but the copies are available from Discogs, and in the worst case scenario, confirm the reliability of my review listening to the album here:
Opium live (short clip): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9XSiSUirP0
