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Taberah: Necromancer

Heavy/Power Metal

5.0/5.0

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Dust on the Track Records / Sony
by Craig Hartranft
09.06.2013

Due south of Melbourne Australia is the island of Tasmania; curiously enough, it's nearly shaped like a guitar pick. How appropriate as rising from this little isle is an exciting metal band, Taberah, with their second album, Necromancer.

Taberah: one dude's none to happy.

The context is classic and melodic heavy power metal, with huge vocal arrangements and buckets of guitar solos, and most often wrapped a strong rock groove. The songs are heavy, sometimes swift, but thanks to the melody and groove, never harsh. Taberah wants to rock your metal world, keeping fist pumping, head banging, and your toe tapping.

Songs like the title cut, Dying Wish, Warlord with it's strong bass line, and the blistering My Dear Lord bring groove, melody, and intensity. Others can be simply charging and direct akin to more speed metal like For King and Country and The Hammer of Hades. Taberah finds their softer side, less speed and intensity, with anthem/ballad Don't Say You'll Love Me, with some crisp acoustic guitar leads.

A humorous number, by it's name, is the instrumental One Goon Bag Later. A "goon bag" is Aussie slang for cheap box wine where the wine is in a plastic bladder. After you downed the several liters, you can inflate the bag for a pillow to sleep off the hangover. The song itself is very expert and savory acoustic guitar. Finally, Taberah does a surprisingly good cover of Burn, one of the great Deep Purple songs. It's a song that turns on the chord structure and vocal arrangements; the band does a fine job, and the guitar work is terrific. I'd like to hear the band tackle Highway Star.

Necromancer produced and mixed by Joe Haley (Psycroptic) and mastered by Australian guitar wizard Stu Marshall (Death Dealer, Empires Of Eden, Dungeon, Paindivision) who said of the album, "one of the best metal releases to come out of Australia in the last 10 years." He's probably right. Easily recommended.

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

Taberah's Necromancer is a blistering album of melodic heavy/power metal bursting with strong vocal arrangements and buckets of great guitar leads.

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Three years have passed since Sweden's Cruzh dropped their second long-player, Tropical Thunder, also introducing their new singer, Alex Waghorn. Now the band returns with The Jungle Revolution ... [ Read More ]