Dutch death doom elite ASPHYX will release its 10th studio album, "Necroceros", on January 22, 2021 via Century Media Records. The LP was recorded at Tom Meier's Tom Meier Studio and at Paul Baayens's The Mörserstudio, and mixed and mastered by Sebastian "Seeb" Levermann at Greenman Studios. It once again features front cover artwork by Axel Hermann.
The official lyric video for the second single from the album, "Knights Templar Stand", can be seen below. The clip was created by Maurice Swinkels of Younique Film (EXODUS, KATAKLYSM).
ASPHYX frontman Martin Van Drunen commented: "A mainly very heavy uptempo track about the Knights Templar battling bravely in the Levant. Outnumbered by many, standing their ground until the very end. A typical ASPHYX song in our well-known neck-breaking metal style and fashion."
"Necroceros" track listing:
01. The Sole Cure Is Death
02. Molten Black Earth
03. Mount Skull
04. Knights Templar Stand
05. Three Years Of Famine
06. Botox Implosion
07. In Blazing Oceans
08. The Nameless Elite
09. Yield Or Die
10. Necroceros
Van Drunen previously stated about "Necroceros": "The first recordings for 'Necroceros' started somewhere in November 2019. Mainly just rough ideas. We hired Tom's studio for a couple of jam sessions so we could record as soon as we thought something had potential. We finished about six or seven songs, but after a few listenings we decided there had still quite some work to be done.
"After the three previous albums and this one being ASPHYX's 10th official full studio record, we were very well aware that the standard had to be incredibly high. Our advantage was that for the first time we had a steady lineup. Since 'Incoming Death', we were damned good 'worked in' together, one 'felt' what the other wanted or where he was music-wise going. With Paul having tons of riffs on the shelves, the earlier takes and the unexpected rapidly spreading COVID-19 outbreak and thus all our gigs being canceled one after the other, we booked Tom once more for a bunch of jam-recordings. Which turned out marvellously...
"It took two weekends to finally arrange all songs and tape the drum-tracks. Going completely berserk while playing and being totally satisfied with the variety, rawness, brutality and dynamics of each particular track, we were 100% certain that we were heading in the right direction.
"Long before all the above was happening, I already had introduced 'Necroceros' as a working title. It came out spontaneously, sounded powerful and since we used the word 'Death' in every release title, so did 'Necro'. The idea was a sci-fi fantasy entity on an eternal course, existing only to devour planets, turning universes into meaningless voids. And while the boys were laying guitars and bass over the drums I searched and wrote the themes and lyrics for every single track.
"To mix with Seeb was a shot in the dark, but he had told me one of his wishes was to ever be able to mix a death metal album for a band like ASPHYX. And since we wanted a fresh input, we gave him a chance by letting Seeb do a test and it fused simply excellent.
"As always, we passed the working title on to Axel Hermann to skizz about and let him throw his morbid imagination over it with detailed bits and pieces. And once more he didn't let us down with another brilliant masterpiece.
"And here we are. Something old, something new, something krushing, something sparkling, something alcoholic, something genius, but all very, very ASPHYX!"
ASPHYX's previous and much acclaimed studio album "Incoming Death" was released in September 2016 and entered the official sales charts in various European countries as follows: Germany: No. 30, Switzerland: No. 67 and Belgium (Wallonia): No. 78.
ASPHYX is Martin Van Drunen (vocals), Stefan "Husky" Hüskens (drums), Paul Baayens (guitars) and Alwin Zuur (bass).
