NEKUS
German/Italian cave-dwelling blackened death-doom primitives Nekus (formed by current and past members of Putridarium, Into Coffin, Hadit, Omnivore, and Bestial Warfare, among others) started in Marburg, Germany around 2018, emerging with a sepulchral and decaying bottom-caving sound blending black and death metal with crippling, slow-moving and insanely downtuned doom with a huge and crushing low end, reminiscent of bands like Moss, Grave Upheaval and Encoffination. The band’s horrific, rumbling and mummified sound first arose on the “Death Nova upon the Barren Harvest” debut EP issued in 2020 on all formats by Blood Harvest Records, and was soon followed by the “Malevolence Evocations” split CD with Impure Declaration, released the same year by Old Temple. Indeed, Nekus’ bottom-heavy sepulchral sound not only is reminiscent in its mood and atmosphere to a trip deep into an aphotic and subterranean realm devoid of all light, but it is actually intentionally crafted so, and the band’s lyrics and concept also follow this theme of a harrowing trip deep below the earth’s crust where existence assumes horrific forms within caverns, crevices and magmatic chambers that constitute a mysterious antihuman realm away from any knowledge of mankind, and which over the centuries has established a consolidated narrative on the superstition of where “hell” actually resides: down below, in the caverns and abysses below the surface which inexorably call all life to it.
