Necrot "Blood Offerings": Bleeding Priest's Bay Area Metal Spotlight #11

Bleeding Priest
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What's up everybody and welcome to another edition of Bleeding Priest’s Bay Area Metal Spotlight. For this edition, I’ve chosen one of my favorite bands that are riding the scene hard right now in the Bay Area—and the world.

They opened one of the Death Angel Christmas shows last year. I got them on the bill—pat myself on the back there—but seriously, I was so stoked they were able to play. You don’t often see death metal bands opening for us at those Christmas shows, so it was really cool to see death metal represented properly.

I’m talking about Necrot from Oakland. Putting the Bay Area death metal flag back on the map.

You know, when you think of the Bay Area, you don’t necessarily think of death metal. Most people think of Bay Area thrash metal, or Journey, or Sammy Hagar. But death metal isn’t usually the first thing that comes to mind. These guys are trying to change that—and they’re doing an amazing job of it.

This is their first album, Blood Offerings. I love all three of their full-lengths. They’re pretty much a continuation of each other. There’s not too much difference between each album. I think they were all recorded at the same studio, same producer, same engineer, and have the same songwriting style across the board. There’s no drastic change from record to record, which I love. They’re consistent as all hell. And if it ain’t broke, why fix it?

This debut is amazing. I actually don’t have a favorite album—I love all three equally. They feel like one long record to me. Like a triple album. But I chose this one because it’s the first one, and it’s when I first got into them.

Also, the opening track, The Blade, was kind of like the theme song for Gimme Metal when I started there with my radio show, Full Metal Jacket. Rest in peace. I miss doing that show so much. But when I first started, The Blade was used in commercials for Gimme Radio all the time, and that’s actually what really turned me on to Necrot.

I had already seen them live a couple of times and thought they were killer, but I didn’t have any of their recorded music until I kept hearing this song on Gimme Metal. I was like, “Who the hell is that? That riff is killer.” Found out it was Necrot.

Great band. Sonny, the guitarist, I’ve known for a long time—way before Necrot was around. He’s a bit of a musical chameleon and a musical genius, I’d say. He’s tried his hand at many styles of rock and metal. He had the band Saviours, who were kind of stoner rock/metal. Before that, he was in Watch Them Die, which was Oakland hardcore. And now he’s in a death metal band. Kind of all over the map—and every band was pretty kickass. Whatever he sets his mind to musically, he succeeds at. I respect the hell out of the guy, I love him, and I’m glad Necrot is doing super well.

Necrot at the Death Angel Christmas Show, December 13, 2024, Great American Music Hall, San Francisco. Photo by Raymond Ahner

At the Christmas show, I watched their whole set. I don’t normally watch opening bands when Death Angel is headlining—not because I’m a rock star (I mean, I am, ha ha. But that’s not the reason). It’s just that I’m warming up and keeping my head in the game. I don’t like to psych myself out by watching other bands. But I watched their whole set because I’m such a fan.

I even asked Chad, the drummer, after the show if he had added more blast beats to their older songs—like ones off Blood Offerings—because it seemed like it. He said no, but to me, his drumming had improved immensely. His blasts were more pronounced, powerful, and even. Just great.

The first time I saw them was at a house party in San Francisco. They played in a basement, a sublevel basement, way underground. I forget who lived there, but it was a raging party. That’s when I first saw him and was like, “Holy hell, where’s this death metal band from?”

Anyway, yeah—his drumming has come a long way. And I don’t have much more to say about these guys except that I love them.

There are lots of cool death metal bands cropping up in the Bay Area now—Laceration, and others—but Necrot are my favorite. Deathgrave is another great band, but Necrot is the top of the heap for me when it comes to Bay Area death metal.