Necropanther's New EP Is Death-Thrash At Its Tastiest

Death-thrash is a hard genre to lock down -- is it really fast death metal? Really brutal speed metal? Who the fuck knows! -- but Necropanther have hit its sweet spot. The Colorado quartet, featuring former members of Denver thrash crew Havok, released their Oppression EP earlier this month, and it fucking slays. Mixed and mastered by the band's Paul Anop and Joe Johnson, Oppression's distinct combination of death metal's technicality and thrash metal's go-for-the-throat speed is delicious to listen to, and will have fans of both of those genres headbanging along in approval.

"This EP has been a decade in the making," says bassist Marcus Corich. "I wrote these songs between 2008 and 2010, and they’re indicative of my music from that time. The songs feature elements from thrash, death metal, punk, and classical music. After I joined Necropanther last year, the guys and I decided to produce the material as a DIY-style follow-up to [our debut] Eyes of Blue Light, and I couldn’t be more proud of the results."

Not just a tight collection of killer tracks, Oppression is also an example of a musical rarity--a concept EP. "The lyrics tell the story of an artist interned in a labor camp under an authoritarian regime," says Marcus. "The hero attempts to retain his humanity and identity in the face of abuse, a story that is ugly yet hopeful and perennially relevant."

We asked Marcus to give us a track-by-track breakdown of each song, to tell us the story and process behind this killer piece of extreme metal mastery:

1. The Train

I wrote this song in 2008 to be fast, chaotic, dissonant and brutal. The lyrical imagery matches the panicked, frenetic riffs and the fluctuating time signature changes in a vertigo-inducing two minutes of stampeding metal.

2. The Camp

The original concept behind this song was to be a “fuck you” to anyone tainting music I hold dear, especially metal. I wanted a song that was catchy yet heavy, thoughtful but primitive. I melded straight riffing with punk sensibilities, death metal wrinkles, and some nods to composers I enjoy. The story fluctuates between raw suffering and cerebral reflection, united under a banner of “fuck you!”

3. The Fugitive

This song speaks less to the characters of the story and more to the setting- bleak, freezing, fearsome beauty. It’s big, it’s heavy, it’s complex. I had a great time putting this piece together and is one of my dearest songs. The tune is guitar oriented and inspired by black metal with enough variety to keep it lively yet heavy. Parts of the action and setting are obvious, but this material concludes with more ambiguity and complexity than the band has used on the other albums.

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Necropanther's Oppression EP is out now Mortis Music. Buy it here.