When in 2008 Necrovation unleashed their debut, Breed Deadness Blood, on Blood Harvest, they made quite a stir in the Death Metal scene. Hailing from Sweden and playing that beloved Swedeath of ours, the signature to Agonia Records and the release of a sophomore album were highly anticipated since most fans had had to wait for four years.

Expectations will be met. If you had loved the debut and its dark compositions, possessed howling with this feeling of impending doom, chances are you're in for another round. Simply named Necrovation, this eponymous album delivers all the good things we came to expect from the Swedes. And even more.

In the galaxy of NWOSDM, there are countless acts that either get inspiration from US legends Incantation/Immolation/Autopsy and even more bands that follow the cult of Swedish Death Metal. Still, very few “modern� bands have captured the essence of it. Sure, they all apply with more or less technical mastery, the Skogsberg’s principles, but sounding like Entombed, Dismember or Carnage is one thing (which even non Swedish bands can achieve) but displaying the energy and talent in songwriting those bands had is an altogether different thing. Necrovation perfectly understood both of these. They have the sound but moreover they have the passion and skills required to release great albums. Albums that make a name for themselves for a period longer than six months or a year.

The more “brutal� tracks can be found at the very beginning of the album’s track list starting with Necrovorous Insurrection, the most fast-paced of them all. The urgency and sometimes almost punkish energy displayed in this track could remind listeners of other Swedish newcomers Morbus Chron. Soon enough though, Necrovation's music evolves in one hell of a beast. The brutality somehow subsides and gives way to complex songwriting based more on dark atmospheres than mere BPM.

In some respect, the music of Necrovation is very literary. Literary as in storytelling, not as in intellectual bullshitting. They chisel tracks like Heroic Fantasy writers, adding depth and momentum like a Clive Barker Book of Blood. In their expert hands, music becomes something else, a great and forlorn adventure with chills, breakthroughs and abysmal avenues. Their music, though genuinely original, draws inspiration from the best classical Death Metal albums. This depth in songwriting may remind the listener of Entombed's Clandestine and the achingly excellent riffing of Dead Congregation's Graves of the Archangels. The sense of epic storytelling and the similarly passionate vocals may remind UG listeners of Germany’s Dark Millennium minus the Atheist touch.

As you go further into the album, songs have more grandeur, more take on your nerves. When you reach "Resurrectionist", an almost perfect Doom Death ode, you’re already on your knees, eargasm spurting out of every orifice, known and unknown, but Necrovation will give the final coup de grace after a classy instrumental track with Ill Mouth Madness, taking you and your last remnant of sanity into realms from which no one has ever escaped yet.

A truly great album that will please early fans and most likely bring tons of new ones. Worthy successor of Clandestine after some 20 years and so superior to most actual bands it actually hurts. Necrovation, the album, is bound to become an instant classic: not one that people will try and fit in their top 2012 list but one that will stick among its elders for years and years to come. FANTASTIC.