(Here we present Didrik Mešiček‘s review of a new album by the Austrian band Nekrodeus, recently released by FDA Records.)
“Gott ist tot,” said Friedrich Nietzsche, one of the greatest people in German history. And now over a hundred years later we have Austrians bringing us the same idea through a more modern medium. A contemporary form of philosophy, if you will. Nekrodeus is another one of those black metal (ish) bands from the Graz scene and they’ve released their third album, Ruaß, on May 16th, 2025, through F.D.A. Records.
Despite Nekrodeus being labeled as simply death metal on Metal Archives, this is a band that keeps changing their sound and have definitely leaned a bit into black metal at some points. Having seen them last summer, I remember them as being a bit blackened and also a bit punkish and that’s the side that hits us from the start with this release. There’s a very aggressive note coming from the vocals combined with a rather dissonant sound that acts almost like an alarm and furious drumming. “Abgrudmensch” is certainly a song that gets your attention and wakes you up.
The chaotic start is exacerbated in “Sarg aus Fleisch,” which is… thrashy? But on the punkish side of thrash, like a lot of those really fun live bands that play crossover thrash. It’s got a great rhythm to it while also being violent in its presentation. So far this sounds like an album that not only isn’t ready to compromise but finds that mere idea of a compromise offensive.
“To Bite the Hand that Holds the Leash” is probably the song title that most encapsulates the feeling and the emotion behind this album. It is, however, only a prelude to what I find to be by far the most surprisingly fun song on the album. At only 46 seconds in length, “Volkscancer” hits like a storm and the vocals of Stefan Rindler switch really well between deeper and a more frontal delivery and make this short “intermezzo” (or whatever the punk equivalent is) really hard-hitting. I imagine the crowd will love this in a live setting.
Some fitting calm comes to the album in “Astraldepression”, and with it more black metal. I can see some people actually finding the differences a bit too jarring but I like diversity in albums and the terrifying calm of the cosmos that’s being channeled through this track fits in well here.
We’re back to the vitriol though, and “Körperstrafe” (Corporal Punishment) is one of the angrier songs on the album which is basically a list of people to be killed. A song that’s truly encapsulated best by its line, “Tinnitus für alle.” Following that, the band gives us “Trümmerjugend,” a song in which I do have to finally acknowledge the consistently great drumming of Paul Färber (Karg, Ellende (live), Harakiri for the Sky (live)). You don’t get to play for like half of the Austrian bands without being really good. Or maybe he’s just the only Austrian drummer in the region. It’s one of those two reasons for sure.
“Sternenleichen” goes completely against everything we’ve heard so far; it starts calmly, and the appearance of Harakiri for the Sky on the song is very apparent. It’s a song that shows maturity, sounds serious, and also rather apocalyptic (slight Panzerfaust vibes at times surprisingly). A fantastic closer to a great release.
Ruaß is fascinating in that it’s not music I normally gravitate to but the album has really gripped me. It manages to mix the fun and aggressive (but not completely frivolous) part of punk with elements of black metal and a few sombre, serious moments into a whole – a whole that was full of holes and awkward pieces that didn’t seem to fit those holes when we started, yet at the end we’re left with something quite seamless.
Lineup:
Stefan Rindler – vocals
Sebastian Lackner – guitars
Lukas Benedičič – bass
Paul Färber – drums
https://fda-records.com/de/
https://fda-records.bandcamp.com/album/rua
https://nekrodeus.bandcamp.com/music
https://www.facebook.com/nekrodeus