An Australian one-man Blackened Death Metal entity strikes with his sophomore album, an overarching story that flows throughout, each song a chapter depicting a world so vile its own death is forced by the hands of nature.

Born in unexpected circumstances during an experimental recording session in mid-2017 at Black Blood Audio in Brisbane, Australia, when recording engineer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Brendan Auld was trialing new recording techniques, Blackened Death Metal outfit Snorlax (and before you ask, that’s indeed the name of a famous Pokémon) is unleashing upon humanity its sophomore opus, entitled The Necrotrophic Abyss, the follow-up to the project’s 2020 debut album II. Recorded and mixed by Brendan himself at Black Blood Audio, mastered by Arthur Rizk, and displaying a wicked artwork by Blasphemator Art, The Necrotrophic Abyss clocks in at just under 30 minutes, delivering a concise, ruthless display of sonic violence and despair. In addition, the album is presented as a concept, with an overarching story that flows throughout, each song a chapter depicting a world so vile its own death is forced by the hands of nature.

It’s always impressive how just one person is capable of crafting a demented wall of sounds the likes of Reawaken, a furious hybrid of Blackened and Experimental Death Metal where Brendan’s riffs sound scorching, followed by The Repudiation ov Disharmony, even more demented and thunderous, with Brendan delivering both deep guttural roars and obscure clean whispers, uniting the most venomous elements from contemporary Black and Death Metal. Fortification is another dense and Stygian aria by Brendan and his Snorlax, firing his trademark riffs and intricate beats and, therefore, keeping the album as caustic as it can be; whereas investing in an even darker, more demonic sonority it’s time for the pulverizing Book ov Serpents, where Brendan growls and gnarls like a creature form the underworld.

Brendan shows no sign of slowing down nor sounding mellow at all; quite the contrary, it’s absolute chaos and madness in the form of Eternal Decrepitude, where he hammers his drums and extract razor-edged riffs from his guitar nonstop, and the title-track The Necrotrophic Abyss sounds blacker than its predecessor thanks to the hellish screams by Brendan, who also crushes his drums in the name of evil, resulting in the perfect depiction of how insane the music by Snorlax can be. After that we have Regenesis Arrival, the most experimental of all tracks, working more like an instrumental, noisy interlude and sounding a bit weird (albeit it makes sense to be placed where it is in the album), flowing into the grim The Bastard Seed ov Terraformation, starting in a sluggish, doomed way before exploding into one final Black Metal attack by Brendan where his beats and riffs once again sound infernal.

The multi-talented Brendan Auld and his Snorlax are waiting for you on Facebook with news and other details about such interesting project, and don’t forget to also stream all of Snorlax’s heavy and visceral creations on Spotify. Above all that, you can purchase a copy of The Necrotrophic Abyss in different formats and from several locations, including Snorlax’s own BandCamp page, the Avantgarde Music’s BandCamp page, Sound Cave as a digipak CD or an LP, the Brilliant Emperor Records’ BandCamp page or Big Cartel (as a CD, an LP, or a very special LP + long-sleeve shirt bundle), Sound Pollution also as a CD or an LP, Barnes & Noble, and Head Records, among others. The planet painted by Brendan in the album is laid to waste for eons, resulting in a desolate baron abyss only creatures of the undead have a chance of surviving, showing a slight glimpse of hope at the end as the story eludes to an unlikely rebirth of evolution and a potentially inhabitable future after all. If that means such awesome album will have a sequel, no one really knows for sure, but we can all rest assured whenever Brendan strikes again with his Snorlax, if it’s just half as good as The Necrotrophic Abyss, we’ll all have a very good reason to keep raising our horns high in the darkened sky.

Best moments of the album: The Repudiation ov Disharmony, Book ov Serpents and The Necrotrophic Abyss.

Worst moments of the album: Regenesis Arrival.

Released in 2023 Brilliant Emperor Records/Unorthodox Emanations

Track listing
1. Reawaken 3:09
2. The Repudiation ov Disharmony 2:50
3. Fortification 3:13
4. Book ov Serpents 2:45
5. Eternal Decrepitude 5:03
6. The Necrotrophic Abyss 3:38
7. Regenesis Arrival 2:09
8. The Bastard Seed ov Terraformation 5:41

Band members
Brendan Auld – vocals, all instruments