California’s Bay Area has been fertile ground since the ascendance of thrash metal in the early 1980s. Since then, however, the region has become just as well known for just about every extreme subgenre, including black metal. One of the best black metal bands to come out of the area in recent years was Necrite.
Necrite only released one album, Sic Gloria Transit Mvndi in 2010 on Flenser Records, but the album made my best of the year list that year with its excellent blending of powerful black metal with the cavernous sounds of doom metal and drone. Equally influenced by Norwegian black metal and by drone giants Sunn O))), Necrite also put on an outstanding performance at the Scion Fest in Pomona, California in early 2011. I’ve been eagerly awaiting additional releases from Necrite ever since, but unfortunately they are currently on hiatus.
Not to worry, it turns out. Three current and former members of Necrite have teamed up as a trio to form a new band, Black Fucking Cancer. They pick up pretty much where Necrite left off with a combination of straightforward, fast black metal with just a touch of doom and drone. This self titled debut album, newly released on Osmose Productions, is one of the more powerful black metal releases of the year with a loud, deep seated production and with excellent songwriting. Anchored by all out blasts and by a dynamic bass that gives the sound a huge amount of depth, Black Fucking Cancer also pile on plenty of fast, powerful riffs, and a vocal delivery of loud rasps.
The musicians also reveal their backgrounds in Necrite with a few moments of cavernous doom featuring a glacial pace, slows riffs, and deep harmonics, but, these touches only occur near the end of a couple of songs. The focus is on fast black metal, which Black Fucking Cancer delivers in spades. Truth be told, they are not very original, but their sheer power is undeniable. If you’re looking for what is ultimately just very powerful black metal, then look no further than Black Fucking Cancer.
(released June 24, 2016 on Osmose Productions)
