��Despite the fact that this Italian band has been at it since sometime in the mid 1990's, I had never come across their music prior to picking up Necrogod, the band's fourth and latest album. With a combination of gothic, prog, and classic black/death styles, Ecnephias (who term their music "Mediterranean Metal") go for an ambitious sound that blends mostly crushing slower tempos, a mix of deep crooning vocals and more typical death metal style growling, atmospheric electronics and simple but catchy riffing that they weave into more complex arrangements deeper into the album. That this album came out on the Code666 label might give you some idea of what we're dealing with here, modern black metal influenced heaviness with slight progressive tendencies. But there's also an atmospheric side to Ecnephias's music that stands out from the other recent albums that I've picked up from the label, and I definitely could pick up on a heavy influence of classic Greek black metal on this music. There are moments on this album that reminding me of a more polished take on the sorts of sonic darkness found with Triarchy Of The Lost Lovers-era Rotting Christ and Varathron's Walpurgisnacht, but with a major goth/rock streak running through it all.

�� With Necrogod, Ecnephias summon dark visions from various pre-Christian religions, plundering the mythologies of ancient Egypt, India and Meso-America, invoking the names of dead gods and ancient, long-forgotten occult traditions of the East through their bombastic dark metal. The songs are a somewhat quirky mixture of that reverb-drenched Greek black metal sound, driving Sisterr Of Mercy-meets-Type O Negative goth crunch, Middle Eastern folk instruments, and Goblin-like synthesizers, and it's all enshrouded in that ambitious, sprawling style that reminds me of some Dan Swano-esque progdeath project.

�� Starting off with a short intro track of dark, World Serpent-esque symphonic ambience formed from Middle Eastern flutes, deep chanting voices and hand drums, Ecnephias kick into the monstrous majestic crush of Necrogod with "The Temple of Baal-Seth", matching a driving dark rock hook and deep, death metal growling to sweeping synths and sinister backing chants, sounding a little like some of the later Edge Of Sanity stuff where Swano started to really wear his Sisters of Mercy influence on his sleeve. The deep gothy baritone crooning is a really prominent part of the band's sound, sure to be a deal breaker for folks looking for something more extreme, as will be the many goth-metal flourishes that appear throughout the album, like the heavy use of dramatic synth and piano accompaniment. But then they also pay homage to their Greek black metal influences by bringing in guest vocalist Sakis from Rotting Christ to contribute his scowling scream to some of the songs. The rest of the album features lots of mid-paced metallic crush, dramatic choruses and the occasional passage of harsher blastbeat driven aggression or slower, doom-laden heaviness, and there's some surprisingly catchy stuff on this album. Some of those folk influences end up showing up with some of the vocal performances, and there's quite a bit of that Goblin-like soundtracky synthesizer sound that pops up here and there, often joined with flourishes of sinister progginess like the instrumental "Winds Of Horus". If you've been digging a lot of the other quirky, prog-tinged black and death metal bands that Code666 has put out, Ecnephias are certainly worth checking out, especially if you're like me and have a higher tolerance for those "gothy" qualities that make up a lot of Ecnephias's sound.

�� Comes in a six-panel digipack with sixteen page booklet with extensive liner notes from the band on the concept behind Necrogod.