The unofficial reboot of the 1984 film Romancing The Stone (starring Kathleen ‘Nekrowitch’ Turner and Michael ‘Deathknok’ Douglas), Necromancing The Stone, replaces the original cast with five burly metalheads who are on a quest to rock your docs off. In this mission for the Jewel Of The Vile they take no liberties in sweeping you off your feet while heroically swinging off dangerous hooks to capture both your imagination and heart. There are some guys who want to be the hero but Necromancing The Stone have already put the ‘Won’ in Wonder.
Featuring ex and current luminaries of Arsis, The Absence, The Black Dahlia Murder and Brimstone Coven, Necromancing The Stone is a technically able group forged in heavy metal and with a lot of experience saving demons in distress turning their more banal practices into a fairy tale marriage of twisted metal and utter brilliance. Their debut album Jewel Of The Vile is an emphatic story of rediscovery seeped in metal tradition and restrains from extorting incestuous deviations of popular forms.
Also contributing to this tale of glory is Taylor Nordberg (Absence, Infernaeon) and Jeff Loomis (Nevermore, Arch Enemy, Conquering Dystopia) who lend their hands on Ritualistic Demise and The Old One respectively to really crank up the volume of talent presented on Jewel Of The Vile. If classic metal hits like a roundhouse with a broadsword then this is that with a virtuous Katana. Compacting the spiritual power of real heavy metal into fifty-four minutes of might and magic, cutting the chuff clean off from post-modern metal while embarrassing it with a great comeback.
Necromancing The Stone never fail to deliver hair whipping verses with glossy harmonies, complete with consistent drum patterns, and they’ll take you away with their concise articulation. Reaching a new level of conjury Jewel Of The Vile is a polished enhancement ready to endow your ears with necrotic melodies. The adrenaline it boasts is a diamond in a sea of glass, where the band slice riffs like they’re Fugu chefs.
Jewel of the Vile is an express trip through heavy fucking metal. Always thrilling and diabolically virtuous. It’s the real sequel to a genre that got sidetracked and in a sense is a passionate love letter to fantasy in art, illustrated in music and inked in monster blood with their proprietary strength.
9/10
