A few days ago I wrote a review about the band UNDEAD CREEP and their first demo. UNDEAD CREEP is more or less a sideproject of David (drums) and Giorgio (guitars) and paying a tribute in a great way to ancient Death Metal from Sweden. Highly recommendable if you ask me. Their main band HAEMOPHAGUS is a totally different type of band than this one as the main focus is an original mix of Death / Grind with influences from REPULSION, AUTOPSY, PUNGENT STENCH (their rockier times) or old NAPALM DEATH. As for most Grind bands “Slaves To The Necromancer” is, though being their first full-length recording, not their first recording but the successor of a demo and a couple of split-releases with such names as AGATHOCLES, DEEP DESIRE, BLOOD RAISED or SICK BONG HEADQUARTER. This Italian 3-piece outfit offers around 35 minutes of rather original Grind music, with a small restriction. If you think of Grindcore as being as fast as possible without any melodies this is not the case for HAEMOPHAGUS. They have fast parts for sure, the wide spectrum of influences they have are also represented in their music. Songs as ‘Sunrise Over Fields Of Dust’ have a huge similarity to AUTOPSY at their “Mental Funeral” days (just check the drumbeat starting at 2:13). Same goes for ‘Dead Eater’ whereas ‘Consecration’ has fantastic vocal-lines close to ACHERON’s ‘Thou Art Lord’ from their wonderful “Rites Of The Black Mass” album back in 1992. ‘Remember To Dismember’ is a homage to REPULSION par excellence and ‘Sniffing The Cremated Rests’ refreshes next to the fantastic title my old love for NAPALM DEATH. ‘Red Diabolical Eyes’ is from the beginning with its shout “Rock And Roll” something for rockin’ PUNGENT STENCH lovers. So what remains is a great album with 14 songs (including the intro ‘La Garrota’), along with several obligatory spoken sequences at the beginning of some songs which every fan of the mentioned bands can blindly buy. Other open-minded Death Metal and Grindcore fans should dare a listen as this is a release above the average. Highly recommended and together with UNDEAD CREEP two of the best releases from Italy for a long time. I’m not aware of the distribution of their label but you can check out their myspace page at www.myspace.com/ignorantwormrecords and the band’s page at www.myspace.com/haemophagus to ask for ordering details.