Necrophagia frustrate the hell out of me, the same way Aborted albums frustrate the hell out of me nowadays. Is it gore metal or is it bar-band Pantera-core? How can a band possibly sound like either/both of those disparate sounds? (And considering I love gore metal AND Pantera, why should this not work wonderfully?) Yet, Necrophagia, who have no shortage of history and respect behind their name, kinda do (as for Aborted, I just have no idea anymore). The clunky production never helps (neither does the 52-minute running time on this one), this album and their last just sounding far too chunky, separated, and bar-band quality considering the quality gore-death contained within. And make no mistake, it is quality stuff, the band excelling at two things that death metal bands today need more of: simplicity and atmosphere. Oh, it's simple, alright: this is caveman groove DM, so simple it comes near to a groove-thrash sound. And atmosphere? It's all over the place here, the band members trudging through the swamps to try to find a video store that still rents VHS movies, totally unaware that video stores barely exist at all anymore. In Necrophagia's world, VHS is still king, and caveman death is still king, and these are philosophies I can totally, 100% get behind. I just wish there wasn't always some strange barrier keeping me from fully loving and connecting with Necrophagia's tunes. Chop the running time in half, make that production easier to warm up to, and I suspect they'd worm their way into my cold heart much faster.