Necrot: "There is no place for competition in the Bay Area metal scene"

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Even if you only have a superficial relationship with today's extreme metal, you would agree that the death metal underground is on a rampage. In recent years, we've witnessed another wave of impressive bands keeping the old-school sound and feeling alive and relevant, and some of the main exponents of the trend are Necrot from Oakland, California. These days, they are releasing the long-awaited successor to 2020's awesome "Mortal", which is called "Lifeless Birth", so what better reason to contact them for an interview!

Luca Indrio, mastermind and main composer of the death metal trio, responded to our call. The musician, who excels as guitarist, singer and bassist, introduced us to the world of Necrot, the secrets of their sound, and all aspects of their impressive third record. At the same time, Indrio gave us a better insight into the difficulties of an emerging underground extreme metal band, the situation in the local metal scene, but also what makes death metal interesting and relevant today. Necrot are sincerely introducing themselves to us, and in turn we wish you a good reading and above all, many and dedicated listenings.

Greetings, my name is Apostolis and I welcome you to Rocking.gr! Congratulations on your new album, it’s amazing! How’s the feedback been so far?

Hi Apostolis! So far the feedback has been great, even if only a few people had the chance to listen to the all album. As we speak we are 7 days away from release date.

We wanted to have new material to play live and a brand new set of songs for people to hear

It’s been four years and a pandemic, since your last album, the mighty "Mortal". How did you decide that it was time to compose again and was your approach any different this time?

We felt that too much time has passed since "Mortal" was released in 2020 and it was too late to do the supporting tours for that album. We wanted to have new material to play live and a brand new set of songs for people to hear. "Lifeless Birth" was the result of the intention of coming back strong and taking back our journey from where we left it in 2020 with a brand new album.

As always, with "Lifeless Birth" you once again present us an incredible cover artwork. How did it came to be? Was there any specific guidance behind its creation from your side?

We have been working with Marald Van Haasteren for many years, we have a great chemistry, understanding and mutual respect. He knows what we want and we have learned how to communicate in a way that makes it so the final result is satisfactory for everyone.

What were you aiming for by picking as the album’s first single the opener "Cut The Cord"?

We always leave that decision to Scotty (Tankcrimes). I like all the songs on the album equally and I don’t care which one is going to be the opener single.

We do our job writing the songs and going on tour and he does his job of promoting the band the way he considers being the best.

We talk about which solo styles fits best, depending on the feeling a specific song has

One thing that I really admire with Necrot, is the way you treat guitar solos, they are always so suitable with the song structure. How do you come up with them? Do you discuss them in the studio?

Sonny Reinhardt is an amazing guitar player and he’s really good at finding the correct style of a guitar solo that is suitable, depending on the song. Sometimes, we talk about which solo styles fits best depending on the feeling a specific song has, also based on the lyrics and the overall mood of a specific song.

Furthermore, Necrot has always had these direct and immense but rich, riffs, that, despite the obvious influences, remind me mostly your music. Do you feel that you’ve found your trademark style as a band? When you decide to write a song, how does the compositional process go?

I have been writing the riffs for Necrot since 2011 and I think that our sound is made both by my composition style and also by our guitar tones and overall sound of the band including Chad Gailey’s style of drumming. The composition part is just the way I write songs, since the beginning I wanted a band that sounded the way Necrot sounds and everything else is a natural progression through the years. Lyrically I always try to find exactly what I need to express and it’s the result of a lot of hours writing things down and trying to place words into vocal patterns that fits musically with the songs.

Since we started we have wanted to play metal the way we like it

With your debut album, "Blood Offerings", you emerged as one of the vital bands of an old school death metal resurgence that took the underground by storm. Do you feel part of such a wave, or to name it differently, part of a larger community?

The way people places us in a certain genre or into a larger group of bands it’s not of our concern. It doesn’t bother us or give us pride. Since we started in 2011 we have wanted to play Metal the way we like it and we have been seeing many bands starting after us coming from many different backgrounds once death metal suddenly became somewhat more popular also within people that weren’t necessarily listening to extreme Metal before. We have not much of an opinion about it, we go our way and we will keep playing Metal the way we do.

Death metal is a very complete style of music both musically and lyrically

Why do you think that people still resonate to this kind of music, despite so many years since the landmark records? Why do you think that metalheads are attracted to death metal today?

It’s a very complete style of music both musically and lyrically with thematics that go from very abstract scenarios, to very psychological and introspective concepts. I think the heaviness and brutality of it will always be very close to heart for many people who are able to understand it.

If you could pick 10 death metal records of the last decade, which would they be and why?

Ok, these are 10 albums from the last decade that I like and I do listen to in not a specific order. I could list many more.

Immolation - "Atonement"
Witch Vomit - "Funeral Sanctus"
Vomitory - "All heads Are Gonna Roll"
Fetid - "Steeping Corporeal Messs"
Dead Congregation - "Promulgation Of The Fall"
Grave - "Out Of Respect For the Dead"
Ritual Necromancy - "Disintered Horror"
Morbid Angel - "Kingdoms Disdained"
Taphos - "Come Ethereal Somberness"
Torture Rack - "Malefic Humilation"

Necrot, as I understand, has always had a punkier/hardcore side in their sound. If so, would you like to guide us to your punk influences?

We all grew up listening to both punk and metal. Some of my favorite punk bands are GBH, Driller Killer, Lords of the New Church, Skruigners, the Ramones, the Exploited, Discharge, Doom, Nausea, Sacrilege and many more.

Necrot influence comes from hundreds of bands, I really couldn’t tell you just a few.

You release your records through Tankcrimes Records. How did this collaboration came to be?

Scotty from Tankcrimes approached us around 2015. He had seen our band playing live in the Bay Area since 2012, and he liked our self-released tapes. He approached us in person at one of our shows and we later ended up on an agreement on releasing what initially were going to be 2 records.

Death is the only thing that perseveres, all empires inevitably die

Let’s return to "Lifeless Birth". One of the tracks that immediately hooked me, was "Superior". Would you mind guiding us through its themes? Do you consider it a political song, and by an extent, yourselves as a political band?

"Superior" is one of my favorite songs on the album. It is a very political song. It talks about how Death is the only thing that perseveres and how all empires inevitably die. It’s a reminder to the people in power that do feel superior that death will find them and kill them sooner all later, they will be Killed by death ha ha!

You end the record with the almost 9-minute song, "The Curse". Is it in any way an indicator for the artistic future of the band?

It is not an indicator of what the future of the band is. I like to end our albums with longer, hopeless and more dramatic songs. It’s functional to the flow of the album to give it a more intense ending.

The Bay Area metal scene as always been very active and supportive

As a young and constantly up-and-coming band, how difficult has it been to make a name for yourselves, especially on the road? How would you describe the situation of your local extreme metal underground to someone who is an outsider?

It takes time to make a name for yourself. It’s not something that happens from a day to another especially for a band like us that makes no compromises and always do what we like without thinking on what pleases the possible listener. Having a good live show is crucial to the success of a band and we have built our fan base through touring and playing live in front of people.

The Bay Area metal scene as always been very active and supportive of each other. There is no place for competition, for a scene to be successful and produce lots of good bands it needs the support of each other and the excitement of everyone involved. Scenes and bands where people are in competition and jealous of one or another achievements are just taking the wrong approach to it. Likely is not the case in the Bay Area a place that has given a lot to Metal and Punk through the decades.

Final question, and I would like to thank you for your time, it means a lot! Any future plans that you would like to share with us, such as, let’s say, maybe a European tour? I would like to wish you the best! The final words are yours!

We will be concentrated on going on tour and promote our new album "Lifeless Birth" on the road. We will be in Europe from the end of July to the end of August playing some of the main festivals as well as club shows. Hope to see you there!