LIK – Necro – Album Review

19th April 2025 0 By Laura Jane

‘Necro‘, released on April 18, 2025, is the latest release from Swedish death metallers LIK. The album is released under Metal Blade Records and is quickly gaining momentum throughout the death metal scene. LIK was formed in 2014 and hails from Stockholm, Sweden, with ‘Necro‘ being their fourth studio album release in this time. The band’s name has a direct translation of ‘LIK’ to ‘corpse’; I mean, would a band really be rooted in death metal if there weren’t some brutality or dark, intense involvement somewhere throughout their presentation? The current members of LIK are Tomas Åkvik (Vocals/guitar), Niklas “Nille” Sandin (guitar), Joakim Antman (bass), and Chris Barkensjö (drums/vocals).

Notable tracks for me on the album include ‘Deceased,’ ‘War Praise‘, ‘Worms Inside‘, and ‘The Stockholm Massacre‘. They follow the signature brutal aggression and bring the riffs that LIK are renowned for; however, I do not feel it brought anything new when comparing this to the previous discography that LIK have put out there. It’s good; it’s engaging, but is it new? Does it feel new? Sadly not. Now, at the same time – hear me out (feel like I say that a lot, but …)—it’s not a negative per se; I just was hoping for more. I was hoping for the sort of tracks that made you want to slaughter your nemesis in broad daylight whilst your neighbour watches on a Ring doorbell bell but didn’t really get that feeling at any time.⁣ su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgGZ1xt1Afw?”]It’s interesting to note that the closing track, “Rotten Inferno,” includes a spoken-word monologue by Swedish actor Daniel Sjöberg (primarily known for his role as Thomas Nilsson in the TV series Rederiet), creating a memorable and unique closure to the album’s expedition.

Overall, and I would like to say, unfortunately for me, this album only scores a 7/10. I mean, it’s still not a bad rating, don’t get me wrong, but whilst listening to this album, I couldn’t really give it much additional praise out of “It’s good. I’m enjoying it.” I didn’t really feel that the album brought anything new to the table. With this being said, I can 100% say that fans of the band and of the death metal genre will appreciate this as a release, but I’m just a bit disappointed that there wasn’t really anything that felt this album excelled in when comparing it to other bands of the same genre or their old discography. I would honestly say, give it a go as it does have some good tracks on the album.

Score: 7/10

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