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Forked Tongues: Lik, Necro, and The Sound of Death
Sweden’s flag-bearers of original wave melodic death metal recently dropped their next full-length, and it’s another banger!
In the midst of the infamous pandemic, Stockholm locals, Lik, somehow dropped one of the most genuine modern death metal albums of our time, with Misanthropic Breed. Now they’re back with their new platter, Necro. Slow Dragon Music set about disinterring the making of their sound. Lik is a rare breed of band, staying very true to the roots of the well known, Swedish melodic death metal style. How concious is that for the band when setting out to write?
Joakim Antman (bass): “Of course we have bands that we look up to musically. But it’s all what we love to hear and write. That is the roots to our music. So there is nothing like, ”we need to sound like this or that band”. It’s just death metal and this kind of death metal is what we do.“
To our ears at SDM, there was always a British influence on that general sound. Namely in Carcass and Cancer. How strongly do Lik feel that flavour passing down the line, if at all?
Joakim: “Maybe not so much that you think. But for us it’s very important to have contrasts in the music. If you want a brutal or a heavy riff. It gets more brutal and heavier if you use melody in that way. That keeps the song interesting through out. If I listen to a death metal song for 3-4 min, no matter how brutal of fast it is, I get exhausted if there is no time to breathe. That is one of the main reasons why we incorporate so much melodies. To keep the listener interested.”
Lik – Necro (album)
Release date: 18th April 2025||Genre: Death metal||Label: Metal Blade Records
Lik’s latest album, simply titled Necro, has landed in another froth of fangs and fury.
If you haven’t heard Lik before, welcome to Stockholm’s flagbearers of proper Swedish death metal. A lot has happened since the birth of the sound, with melodeath snatching a long ride in the driver’s seat. This squad, however, only seem concerned with the gnashing maw of the original wave. While still delivering relevance and creativity, Necro takes up directly where Misanthropic Breed left off, carving through indoctrinated influences from the sub-genre’s progenitors. You simply can’t mistake that classic grit, but Lik make it very much their own. Still employing their patented take on death-meets-sludge at times, the scales have shifted a little in favour of their more frenetic, thrashier riffs, seemingly nodding even further back into extreme metal history (don’t worry, you’ll still get your rotten grooves). The US and UK obviously had a significant impact on early DM, and their presence feels more apparent here than on Misanthropic. It’s not stilted or stale by any stretch, and likely something which is in the ear of the beholder, rather than being planned from within. So yes, the roots are clearly showing, but the fruit is fresh, and Lik are assuredly one of the best death metal bands currently lurching out of Scandinavia. Time to get Necro!
A+ and a coronation for claiming the crown
Slow Dragon
Before even those bands, the crown of origination surely has to go to the US. And one might even sense the hand of Iron Maiden here and there. But do these legacies feature in the band’s collective mind?
Joakim: “We love bands like Morbid Angel, Autopsy and Cannibal Corpse. And I think subconsciously everything you listen to influence you in some way. Like I said before, we love melodies, and for the style we play, we think it’s necessary to incorporate it for the bigger picture of a song.“
On the live front, SDM is hoping to get a first live taste of Lik at this year’s Odense Metalfest (check out our 2023 event wrap here: .https://www.slowdragonmusic.com/articles/feeding-frenzy/1-2-odense-metalfest-2023-wrap/) In a Nordic metal community which seems quite tightly knit, how do the different regions compare?
Joakim: “That would be great! Ihaven’t really thought of it that way. Maybe people up here could learn to let loose a little bit, like the more south you get I guess. But maybe it’s because every metal head here has like 3 bands and is more of a ”music police” than enjoying the music.“
It feels like something may have been lost in translation, but this is an interesting observation none the less. In the interest of pan-regional communications, maybe we will see Lik hit our shores…
Joakim: “We are looking into that. Hopefully we can come over there and play for you guys soon! Now we are just going to enjoy having the album out and play some cool shows at some festivals this summer!“
Necro is available here: https://eyesoremerch.com/bands/l/lik/
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Forked Tongues: Lik, Necro, and The Sound of Death
