Scarlet Evil Witching Black

Often lumped together with Varathron and Rotting Christ, Necromantia were another important band of the Greek black metal scene. Of course, each of these bands had their own specific take on black metal; whereas the early works of Varathron and Rotting Christ bring to mind the civilizations of Ancient Greece, Necromantia’s Scarlet Evil Witching Black resembles something theatrical. For a quick point for reference, think of a sinister version of Infidel Art, but remove the nods to Celtic Frost and add a dose of heavy metal instead and you’re nearly there.

Like a play that takes place in the underworld, Scarlet Evil Witching Black is brought to life by the several diabolical characters that all have their own unique features. Magus Wampyr Daoloth venomously screeches through these songs while maintaining the ideal balance between intensity and cohesiveness. Quite a plus if you’d ask me…another plus would be the real drummer that sets early Necromantia apart from some of their country mates at the time and he manages to create a living environment for the guitar and bass duo to play around with. Baron Blood toys around with an 8 string bass and is responsible for a demolishing wave of distorted sound that might sound unappealing on paper, but it really works for this kind of style. For a quick example, try ‘’Black Mirror’’, which opens with a faithful Sabbath-esque riff that crashes down with an enormous amount of weight and would make Geezer Butler extremely proud. So far so good and while I’m convinced that a stripped-down version of Scarlet Evil Witching Black would have sounded just fine, there’s more to it. We also have a guy that goes by the name of Inferno, who summons the right amount of ghastly ambiance with his keys and pianos, but rarely dominates the album with an overpowering presence. I’m very fond of these kind of musicians and if that wasn’t enough yet, session musician Yiannis ‘’The Worshipper of Pan’’ even shares his saxophone skills on track 4 of the album…which is surprising to say at least (although I’m not too fond of the track itself, but more on that later).

The thing with Greek black metal is that I could easily see non-black metal fans enjoying this kind of style. Newcomers might expect an endless amount of incoherent raspy snarls, overpowering blastbeats and non-stop piercing riffs from these bands, but nothing could be further from the truth. No doubt that Scarlet Evil Witching Black gets pretty damn heavy at times (and the pure blackened riff-work is part of it), but it’s not just a matter of heaviness that does it for me. You just never know what lurks around the corner, as Necromantia have plenty of surprises in store and that makes Scarlet Evil Witching Black so appealing. ‘’Pretender to the Throne (Opus I: The Usurper’s Spawn)’’ kicks off with some groaning Rotting Christ-esque riffs, before it morphs into a brief folky hymn and eventually reaches its exciting climax of blackened, yet vigor bass majesty. ‘’Scarlet Witching Dreams’’ vaguely resembles Fates Warning’s ‘’The Sorceress’’ with that enormous chorus riff, but also features some interesting and contrastive verses; at first the track blasts onward with malice and later embraces some delicate acoustics that I’m also fond of. ‘’Pretender to the Throne (Opus II: Battle at the Netherworld)’’ recaptures Wager’s theme before it turns into an alluring bass-driven attack that highlights some of the record’s best mid-paced moments that would probably leave the best impression behind for people who aren’t huge black metal fans to begin with.

Not every song works as well as it should and while the amount of metallic punch rarely appears out of sight though, I should admit that I’m not too fond of the chaotic parts, as they lack some of the bombast that they should be responsible for. Take the fastest moments of ‘’Devilskin’’ for example; while I could see the appeal of them, they go one ear in and in ear out and sound too pedestrian for my taste…fortunately Necromantia never dwell on these kind of riffs, but it’s worth mentioning if you’d ask me. While you could never fault the band for sounding unambitious either, several tracks end up more confusing than downright effective as well, which is another minor issue. Oh, the saxophone in ‘’The Arcane Light of Hecate’’ creates quite a haze, but why use it in a track that has so little going on? I’d have liked to have heard the saxophone blend with some actual riffs instead, so this sounds more like a wasted opportunity than anything else. On a related note, ‘’Spiritdance’’ starts off with an overpowering riff that’s hard not to get carried away by, only to lose its sense of direction quickly later - I could do with less spoken passages and gloomy keys and more harsh vocals and action-driven riffs instead.

Scarlet Evil Witching Black certainly isn’t the pinnacle of Greek black metal (nothing beats Thy Mighty Contract and Non Serviam as far as I’m concerned), but its ambitious scope can’t be denied. So, I like it quite a bit and if you’re looking for some ambitious, bizarre, yet hefty black metal, then you’ll like it too.

This review was originally written for antichristmagazine.com

When I wanted to start this review it was a few days before the release of Necromantia's last and final album, so I was preventing myself from starting this review because I wanted to make sure to verify if I still believed that this is Necromantia's worst album. Now that the final album from the Hellenic band has been released I realize that this mindset I had was absolute bullshit. There is no such thing as a bad Necromantia album so trying to label this as their worst album is stupid, mainly because it is my personal opinion that this is their weakest work and my perception is not the law, so a statement like "This is the worst Necromantia album" would have been a crude and ridiculous attempt to draw attention to it. Even so, I ask to be excused because I know that this opinion I am about to share is not popular and in great measure is contrary to most of the impressions left by this work. The first Necromantia album blew my mind, and my fascination increased when I saw that there were many opinions that said that "Crossing the fiery path" was an incomplete work and that this "Scarlet Evil Witching Black" was the one that perfected and gave solidity to the style so characteristic of the greeks. Maybe my expectations were too high but I was mainly disappointed with a work that transmitted me very little.

If I have to use a word to define a great part of the album is "inferiority" because I feel that all the elements that are developed in this work are implemented in a better way in other Necromantia albums, the only thing I can say in their favor is that the production and the way of structuring the songs is much more sophisticated, that at the same time makes the compositions feel more artificial. Necromantia in their early days had a pronounced sinister tone in their atmosphere and in this album we don't have those great performances as we had in songs like "The Warlock" or "De Magia Veterum" but we find a work much more focused on the symphonic elements but the ideas don't seem so clear.

I think this is something that can be seen a lot in the second albums, the first one is always a work made up of compositions that maybe they have been working for years, they have had time to mature the ideas and show the best side of their creations, however for the second album they find themselves with a blank page that they have to fill in against the clock, so it is clear that the creative process can become an arduous task and I think that it is reflected here. Necromantia tries to do many new things for the first time and these do not end up fitting so well as they would end up doing in later works, the tributes to classical music would work better in the great "Murder, Magic and Tears" from the third album, or in the intro of "The Sound of Lucifer Storming Heaven" making a reference to themselves with a repress of Wagner's piece that works much better than simply putting a fragment of the Ride of the Valkyries without anything else. And also having already mentioned those two later albums I think that each of them fulfills better aspects that are attempted here as the orchestration more solid in his work of 2007 or the impetuous use of the aggressive guitar solos that would be stronger in "IV:Malice". And even an element as outstanding and unique as the saxophone in the atmospheric "The Arcane Light of Hecate" has been surpassed by the recent instrumental of "To the Depths We Descend..." that gives a much better use to the instrument and includes it in a more natural way in the composition, feeling way more forced in this work.

However, I think that the album works on many levels, the quality of the songs never drops and we find songs of remarkable quality everywhere, all with segments that make them memorable in one way or another thanks to an extremely careful compositional aspect and a clean production, the exceptions to this would be the two songs of "Pretender to the Throne" especially the "Opus II" that although I have criticized for its intro, which contributes very little, the rest of the song shows perfectly one of the best sides by Necromantia, the epic tonality that accompanies the principal theme with the backing vocals together with possibly the part of the work where we see the most chaotic and aggressive Baron Blood sound, an absolute remarkable piece of a song, if the rest of the tracks had the intensity of this one we would be talking about a different note and a different perception of this album.

Scarlet Evil Witching Black was a necessary work for the evolution of Necromantia's sound, for many it is their magnum opus since it gives life to all the characteristic elements of the sound that the Greeks acquired in their post demo stage that culminated with "Crossing the Fiery Path" but for me it was only a small (but necessary) step in a change to a more mature sound that never had the charm of their debut.

Necromantia didn’t so much buck the trend of Hellenic black metal as they did extreme metal as a whole. They created ghoulish occult metal superficially notable owing to the use of a six string bass repurposed as a rhythm guitar, and sporadic use of a saxophone. Such service level adornments are only a small part of the story however. After a promising split EP with Varathron in 1992 (Black Arts / The Everlasting Sins), their debut ‘Crossing the Fiery Path’ (1993) showed some promise, but suffered from a disconnected structure that lacked momentum. Follow up, 1995’s ‘Scarlet Evil, Witching Black’ saw them overcome these shortcomings and deliver a masterpiece of weird as fuck extreme metal we all knew they were capable of.

This album sees them move closer to some of the heavy metal leanings typical of Greek black metal, but through the lens of their trademark muddy bass as acting rhythm guitar. This is mixed with cheap but charming keyboards and ghoulishly distorted vocals. Drums are serviceable for this mid paced music. The snare drum has an industrial quality to it, reminiscent of the infamous ‘smash’ sound found on Death’s ‘Leprosy’ (1988). Before SEWB Necromentia were notable for their intriguing brand of creepy, primitive metal. But they often broke up the metal tracks with extended interludes of Mediterranean dungeon synth, made up of saxophones and bass solos as well as cheap keyboard effects and minimal chanting. These were interesting, but as mentioned, it was to the detriment of the structure.

On this release these more avant-garde elements have been worked into Necromentia’s already idiosyncratic approach to extreme metal, making for a streamlined and ultimately more engaging experience. It calls on everything from Greece’s melodic approach to black metal, to symphonic black metal, to the more primitive occult metal of Beherit. But the finished product is more than the sum of these parts and just as diverse as this description suggests. But limitations in production values, whether it’s the deliberate buzzsaw tone to the bass guitar or the hammy orchestra-hit tone on their keyboard, lend a humorous charm to this music. This, for my money, adds another layer of intrigue to this already intriguing album.

So here we have it; an albums from a less celebrated black metal scene, that is really only black metal in the broadest possible sense, that combines the basic primal elements of 80s extreme metal with unconventional techniques and instrumentation. This is a recipe for a pretentious failure. But Necromantia never let the desire to be different for the sake it define their sound, and they put these surface level flourishes to the service of a greater cause, which is bizarrely well crafted music.

Originally published at Hate Meditations

Alot of people slag black metal for being to conservative/constrictive/close-minded, and they would be correct and idiotic for challenging such a notion. Black metal is about satanism, mysticism and that eerie feeling you get up and down their spine when they're alone in dark, unfamiliar and unsettling circumstances. It is created to exhibit this notion and this notion only. But what most people get wrong about the genre, are the methods how one can get there. Sure there are traditions and rules that need to be upheld, but if you are somehow able to get similar results through unconventional means, more often than not you'll be accepted and praised.

Such is the case with Necromantia. If I played this to the average metal fan they'd think "Whoa, those are some sweet Sabbath tones playing black metal." If I played this to a casual Watain or Immortal fan they'd probably go "This is some nifty Rotting Christ worship." If I were to make a bet with them that the main rhythm instruments were not guitars, but in fact two separately stringed basses, I'd be a rich man round my parts. Somehow Magus and Baron have taken the lessons of Lemmy and applied a completely different science to it. While bass isn't as quite important of an instrument in black metal, favoring more trebley and tremolo sounds, it still ought to be there, but the fact that a group has managed to take the bass and make it a wall of sound without turning it into mud is truly astonishing.

You know what else is astonishing, the fact that these guys managed to take a fucking SAXOPHONE and introduce it into the proceedings and just make it completely work! Saxophone only belongs in two genres of music: Jazz and James Brown. To be fair, it's not a part of the actual songs, just an ingenious interlude by the title of "The Arcane Light of Hecate." If you find interludes with no guitars skippable, this probably won't change your mind much, but you should give it one listen anyway just to hear how natural they make it sound. The track evokes the feeling of Scheherazade's One Thousand and One Nights. While not as occult as say, a virgin rape on a pentagram altar, it still very much evokes the vibe all pure black metal strives for, something alot of people can't seem to pull off with guitars, bass and drums. At the very least, the saxophone sounds a hell of a less out of place than that bizarre jack-in-the-box version of "Auld Lang Syme" that starts off the album. Seriously, what the fuck? it's not even remotely spooky in a jump scare setup sense. You're relived and befuddled when DevilSkin proper kicks in, wondering "What the fuck was that for?"

But let's talk about the metal proper. This all around the most consistent and satisfying greek black metal LP since Thy Mighty Contract. Some staunch, crotchety critics could in fact make the claim that this is what should have been Rotting Christ's second album. I like Non Serviam as much as the next black metal guy, but I can't deny this is slightly more compelling. Don't fret from an earlier description, there are definitely guitars to be found here. The best kind, lead guitar solos! Not once do you get an empty pocket feel from a lack of rhythm space when they take centerstage, a testament to the brilliantly obscure production on this album. Why should it? After all, those are some damn good guitar pantomimes.

The daring taking of chances doesn't begin and end with Hecate, however. There's an ominous piano drop near the end of the title-esque track that sounds like something out of the original Tales From The Crypt film. There's also a recording of Flight of the Valkyeries which....maybe doesn't quite fit the vibe of the album (I remember looking up Battle of the Netherworld on Youtube for a sample of the album and thinking I had been rick-rolled National Socialist Black Metal style!), but you can't deny how natural symphonies can integrate with metal sometimes. Hell the synths that are sprinkle throughout the album (specficially during Spiritdance, hot damn!) give the album an orchestral fire most so called "symphonic black metal" can't even sneeze at.

If you must only own one Necromantia album, this is definitely the one. Crossing The Fiery Path was listenable, but had just too weak of a signal to noise ratio to be essential. Reccomended for fans of Rotting Christ as well as fans of To Mega Therion and Into The Pandemonium.

Necromantia is one of the most unique and mysterious black metal bands. When you hear about black metal, you imagine bands like Darkthrone, Mayhem, or Immortal, right? Well, if you do so, you will be surprised by Necromantia, as the band has its own sound, personality and point of view about black metal. Scarlet Evil Witching Black is probably the band's magnum opus and generally a crowning achievement of the whole extreme metal scene.


The most characteristic thing about this (and every Necromantia release) is the lack of guitars.Instead, there is an 8-string bass that plays the role of the guitar. However, in Scarlet Evil Witching Black you can hear some of the most ferocious riffs! The influence of early Manowar can't be hidden, as some of these riffs are truly epic and violent, like the opening riffs in the songs "Pretender To The Throne (Opus I)" and" The Serpent And The Pentagram". There is a variety of amazing riffs, from extremely fast to more slow and doomy and that is one of the reasons that make you want to listen to the album again and again.


Another thing that makes this album so unique is the orchestration. There are many instrumental parts in every song, filled with haunting keyboard melodies, that create a mysterious and evil atmosphere, which is able to create unique feelings to the listener. It is also easy to understand that Necromantia are also inspired from classical and jazz music, as they use piano, acoustic guitar and even a saxophone!The drumming in this record is also mind-blowing, not only in the fast parts but in the slower parts as well.


The lyrics that Necromantia write are excellent and reveal the band's talent and their poetic side. Dark, occult and blasphemous are written in a way that can only impress.Another thing that also impresses is the vocals. Magus Wampyr Daoloth's voice always impressed me, even since the Rotting Christ era. His screeches and screams are extraordinary, but the spoken parts, where Magus speaks his blasphemous words, are capable of sending chills down your spine.


I recommend this masterpiece to any fan of dark and occult music who wants to stick with an album for a long time and trip with it. Scarlet Evil Witching Black is a monument of black metal that stands out for its breathtaking atmosphere and proves that what maters in this kind of music is not the speed, but the atmosphere and...the artwork.

Necromantia's use of the 8-string bass in place of the traditional 6-string guitar has made them a unique force in the black metal genre, especially when you consider how long they've stuck to the technique. That is not to say Scarlet Evil Witching Black is entirely void of the traditional guitars; they are used here for acoustic moments as well as leads.

It stuns me how little this has any effect on the band's hell-spawning vitriol, because these are some of the most savage guitars ever committed to disc. Scarlet Evil Witching Black is the crowning moment for a band who receives far too little credit, and it's arguably the crowning achievement of the Greek scene. The 8-string bass is not the band's only forte, as pianos and saxophones also exist in this negative plane, and a subtle and beautiful orchestration provides a brilliant counterpoint the rugged, raw thrust of the two basses. Magus Wampyr Daoloth has a sinister edge to his vocals, like the frolicking of imps and homonculi about the burning palaces of Hell.

All the material is enormous and evil. "Devilskin" enters with distant whipping winds, and the cordial sounds of a music box-like lullaby, before the raging basses erupt like an abandoned palace of heaven crashing into a volcanic, abyssal maw. "Black Mirror" begins with a doomed gait, glorious sunken memories evoked through the dingy, dual bass. "Pretender to the Throne (Opus I: The Usurper's Spawn)" uses some interesting, shouting vocals along with the incredible basswork and synths. At :43, one of the greatest riffs ever kicks in, a vile march towards the jaws of Leviathan. "The Arcane Light of Hecate" is a ritual, orchestral piece without the metal elements...and yes, a creepy fucking saxophone solo! Unbelievable.

The metal continues with the downward spiral of leadwork and driving bass of "Scarlet Witching Dreams", and the hellish, bludgeoning of "The Serpent and the Pentagram". Then you are treated to a familiar classical sample that leads into "Pretender to the Throne (Opus II: Battle at the Netherworld)". While a great song, this is perhaps the one piece on the album that was not entirely compelling. But the scintillating monument to sorrow, "Spiritdance", makes up for this with its ever-weaving orchestrations astride the tumult of the clean and harsh vocals, and the bass wasteland.

Scarlet Evil Witching Black is a sick album. It's the best of Necromantia, and one of the most unique creations in the underworld magmasphere of occult black. Inspired by its rituals and imagination, it made an amazing companion piece to Therion's masterpiece Lepaca Kliffoth (which also released that year). A true masterwork of Greek misanthropy.

Highlights: the black scarlet witching evil vs. the black evil scarlet witching

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Where black metal usually sounds like the musical equivalent of a wintry blizzard, Necromantia get away with using this warm, full, brooding and ,dare I say it, romantic sound. A sound that hints at the Mediterenean beginnings of this band and is not shy in the including of their heritage in their songs.

A very strong atmosphere stems forth from this album. Nothing of the grimness and coldness, their Norwegian peers are so rightly proud of, can be found here. This is Black Metal in a style that I have never heard any other band perform. It orchestral but not in a Emperor way, it's brutal yet not in a Immortal way, it however a gem in this scene.

The use of two bassguitars (one 4 string and one 8 string which was handcrafted by the bass player) is definite proof that this instruments is indeed perfectly fit for melody as wel as brutal riffing. The use of Keyboard is perfectly timed and not overly dominant. The drums are absolutely brilliant. And the use of an occasional guiater solo is a great addition to the sound.

Songs like Devilskin and The Serpent And The Pentagram are among the best ever written in modern Black Metal.

Lyrically it's all greek mythology and a bit of antichristianity (which is always good of course:-))

In my humble opinion this their very best effort and this level of musical craftmanship was never reached again by the band.