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Amidst the plague and pestilence of 2020, the infernal ensemble known as Necrophobic unleashed their ninth album, Dawn of the Damned. This record picks up where Mark of the Necrogram left off, showcasing the band in top form with excellent riff-heavy songwriting, laced with hellish melodies and hooks at every turn. Drummer Joakim Sterner, the sole remaining founding member, delivers his signature forceful, thunderous performance, which is crucial to making their music so appealing and engaging. Meanwhile, Anders Strokirk’s diabolical rasps sound as menacing and sharp as ever. This version of Necrophobic simply does not write bad songs.

Having listened to this and become more familiar with their previous work, it’s clear that Necrophobic has found and perfected a formula that works brilliantly for them. While Mark of the Necrogram wobbled slightly on some of its slower tracks, Dawn of the Damned feels more cohesive. In fact, "The Return of a Long Lost Soul"—the album’s longest and arguably slowest track—is a standout, alongside the relentless hook assault of "The Infernal Depths of Eternity." Aside from the somewhat pointless intro, "Aphelion," the only track that stands out in a slightly unusual way is the album closer, "Devil’s Spawn Attack," featuring Schmier of Destruction. That said, it sounds exactly how you’d imagine Necrophobic would if they played blackened thrash metal.

So, if you are familiar with Necrophobic, there’s not really anything new going on here, but that hardly matters when the delivery is this consistently high-quality.