Asphyx will release their first new album in four years titled Necroceros on January 22. The album was mixed and mastered by Sebastian "Seeb" Levermann (Rhapsody of Fire, Ross The Boss) and given artwork by Axel Hermann (Bloodbath, Iced Earth, Grave). Vocalist Martin van Drunen (ex-Pestilence, ex-Hail of Bullets) said the album was written largely by jamming together.
"The first recordings for Necroceros started somewhere in November 2019," said van Drunen. "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 6/7 songs, but after a few listenings we decided there had still quite some work to be done.
"After the 3 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 line-up. 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 marvelously…
"It took 2 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. And there we were…
"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!"
The first single from Necroceros is due out November 6.
