Year: 2023
Total Time: 50.41
Label: Necrocosm Productions
The wait is over! French Industrial Black Metallers NEO INFERNO 262, drop their sophomore album “Pleonectic”, fifteen years after their debut, “Hacking The Holy Code”. The new album is once again released through the French (and genre-specialized) label Necrocosm Productions. The main member A.K. (MERRIMACK, DECLINE OF THE I, VORKREIST, EROS NECROPSYQUE and many more) gathered as guests the “National team of the French Industrial Black Metal”, including L.Helheim (ex MOONREICH), Déhà (WOLVENNEST,SILVER KNIF), MKM (ANTAEUS, AOSOT), Saint Vincent (SETH, BLACKLOGDE), Bornyhake (BORGNE), BST (THE ORDER OF APOLLYON) Heimoth (SETH), Krys (OPHE, ex ASK THE DUSK), Berzerk (SEKTARISM,SENESTRE), S. (ARS VENEFICIUM), Dehn Sora (TREHA SEKTORI, THROANE), L. (MOURNING DAWN), NRK (BLACKLOGDE).
Given the above, nothing mediocre could happen. And indeed in “Pleonectic”, the band shows how the true and quality Industrial Black Metal should be played. And indeed, in “Pleonectic” the band shows us how quality Industrial Black Metal should be played. Heavy and fast guitars up to pure Black Metal “scratchy” playing, sometimes in a slower tempo, extreme Black Metal growls combined with recitations and somewhat cleaner vocals (mostly from the guests), dynamic bass combined with electronic bass lines, many industrial samples but also samples/phrases from movies, blast beats from drum machines but also some groovier playing and lots of keyboards along with even more electronic elements. All this given through an excellent production, which is difficult to achieve in this genre! You don’t know what to expect in each of the nine songs of the album. One thing is for sure, you will have to listen to them over and over again, as something new will be discovered with every listen!
Regarding the songs, “4.0.4.4.2.2.6.2” stands out and opens the album in the best possible way, as well as “SEXES”, which leaves you speechless with its ideas and the way they are performed! The two singles that preceded the album, “Bleak Revolution” and “Digital Warfare”, are also very good, not lacking in any way, but also the rest of the songs are on a very high level. I’m going to talk big but I think that “Pleonectic” is the best Industrial Black Metal album that I have listened to after MYSTICUM’s “Planet Satan”! It will definitely be at the top of my list concerning the Top 10 Extreme Metal albums of 2023! I highly recommend it to every fan of this particular genre, even though I know that we don’t have many of them in Greece… Available on vinyl, CD (with an extensive 16-page booklet with all the lyrics and exquisite artwork) and cassette.
Rating: 8/10
Editor: Dimitris Argyrakis
Related Link: NEO INFERNO 262 – Instagram Page
