(written by Islander)
Everything that happens today will be the last this or the last that or the last that other thing that happens in 2025. This is the last NCS premiere of 2025, and it’s a very good one.
To help ring out 2025 and to help ring in the New Year we’re premiering the first single and the title track from a new Graufar album named Via Necropolis. We present it with a lyric video that includes live footage of the band’s performances filmed across 9 different shows, including Wacken Open Air Festival.
Graufar, whose name is an old German word for the color “grey”, are a relatively new group but have quickly achieved some notoriety. Founded in 2020 in Linza, Austria, they released their debut album Scordalus in 2024 and in that same year won Wacken Metal Battle Austria and went on to place ninth in the international finals at Wacken Open Air. The forthcoming second album builds on these foundations.
As an early introduction to the album, the title song provides a powerful first strike. Graufar set the stage for the song in subdued, mysterious, and intriguing fashion but then steadily begin to build intensity through jolting punches, dissonant riffing that seems to distressingly writhe, and scalding snarls.
Again briefly subdued, the music simultaneously throbs and rings — and then the song flares in riffing that sweeps, soars, and sears, coupled with a vocal tandem of cauterizing screams and maddened roars. Graufar follow that with an electrifying embellishment, a guitar solo that sounds ecstatically exotic, before they once again return to music of mystery and menace, but this time accompanied by diabolical spoken words.
They bring in a whirring guitar bridge, and on the other side of that, chaos reigns. The drums maliciously hammer, the riffing chaotically boils, savage death-growls come for listeners, and crazed screams explode. But the song also resumes brutishly slugging, and the devilishly darting and exotically swirling guitar refrains also return, ultimately leading to a frighteningly glorious finale.
“Via Necropolis” turns out to be not just a powerful first strike for the new album but a very seductive and hook-laden one too. It surges and recedes like some infernal tide. It joins together hard-hitting grooves, phases of sinister atmospheric melody, outbursts of fiery exhilaration, supernatural soloing, and ferocious vocal dynamism. Discover for yourselves:
GRAUFAR is:
Gernot G. – Lead Vocals & Guitars
René H. – Drums
Mike H. – Growls & Guitars
Thomas S. – Backing Vocals & Bass
“Via Necropolis” (the song) will be released across streaming platforms on January 2nd, 2026 (pre-save it via the link below) Via Necropolis (the album) will be released on March 20th, 2026. For more news and further music from the album, follow Graufar at the locations also linked below.
Lyrically, the album explores themes such as social criticism, the darker side of human nature, transience and death. It features artwork by Verena Lindlbauer (aka trendmord) and is recommended for fans of Necrophobic, Dark Fortress, Watain, and Blackbraid.
PRE-SAVE THE SONG:
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/graufar/via-necropolis
FOLLOW GRAUFAR:
https://graufar.bandcamp.com/album/scordalus
https://graufar.com/
https://www.instagram.com/graufar/
https://www.facebook.com/graufar