At the finish-line of the Decibel Magazine Tour, and on the precipice of playing Hell’s
Heroes Festival in Houston, I finally caught Texas black metal burners Necrofier at the
resurrected HQ on So. Broadway. In doing so, I caught back up with myself in a way. Admittedly,
I’m about 15 years removed from the metal “scene” and being asked to cover this show felt like
being pushed off the diving board into something you forgot you loved so much.
Sure, having a country/pop music-loving wife and being strapped into listening to
“kid-appropriate music” are a couple fan-fuckin’-tastic excuses for why I jumped out of the
scene. But honestly, I think I just went down a rabbit hole. And with such limited time for
“personal listening” I ended up being shoved into someone else’s rabbit hole which was
DEFINITELY the wrong hole. We don’t even listen to or explore music the same way as when I
was last involved in the metal scene. There was a completely different cash-to-exploration ratio
that kids of today will never understand. My eclectic enjoyment of metal included the likes of
Pantera, Element Eighty, Pelican, ISIS, Katatonia, BTBAM before being sadly derailed around
2010. But I digress.
For the first time in my show coverage history, I knew absolutely nothing about the artist I was
slated to cover. Maybe it was reckless, but I really wanted to give a fresh take through some old
ears. If I tried to compare it to what I knew from more than a decade ago, it would be unfair and
unfit. I was completely prepared for my experience as a 40-year-old washed-out ex-metal head
who’s too sore to even think about getting close to a pit to suck. I was so fucking wrong. Small
room, little light, cranked amps with blood soaked riffs ripping the cones off the house PA,
unintelligible guttural expressions, a relentless drummer that forced your head to rock in sync
with the stranger next to you. It was fucking awesome. Experiencing Necrofier brought it all full
circle and reawakened the metal within.
I expected to be at the show for only an hour, or so, before going back home for sleepy time on
a Monday night. However, as referenced by the little paper under my windshield wiper, I didn’t
exactly pay enough on my parking meter to stay the rest of the night like I did. Necrofier
surprised me as a solid group with enough technical talent and solid hooks to headline larger
stages. After shooting the first couple of songs near the front, I moved closer to the front of the
house to soak in the overall feel from the rest of their performance (out of the way of their
die-hard fans).
Throughout the rest of their set, I watched about a dozen date-night dressed people walking by
the venue randomly stopping in their tracks interested in what they were hearing. Half of those
folks actually turned back and paid for tickets to catch the rest of the show. To me, that’s a
testament to what I was feeling, which is this, Necrofier is one hell of a bridge for non genre
nerds (like me) to get into metal. They made me want to dive back deeper into the scene. They
obviously hold up to the fans within the scene and, as referenced by singer Christian Larson’s ability to organize a festival like Hell’s Heroes, they’re absolutely relevant deep within their scene. But being able to bridge new people into an entire genre, and by bridging several sub-genres seamlessly together so well, that makes this band a worthy target.
