UMUR "Necronaut" is the self-titled debut full-length studio album by Swedish death metal project Necronaut. The album was released in October 2010 by Regain Records. Necronaut is the brainchild of former Dismember drummer Fred Estby who plays most guitars, bass and drums on the album in addition to singing the lead vocals on the track "The Lie In Which The Truth Is Buried". There are a host of guest vocalists on the album. Among others Chris Reifert ( Autopsy, Abscess), Tomas Lindberg ( At the Gates, Nightrage, The Crown, Grotesque) and Nicke Andersson ( Entombed, The Hellacopters). There are also several guest guitarists who play lead guitars on the album.

The music is not surprisingly old school Swedish death metal but because there is a new vocalist singing on each track, there´s good variation in the vocal department. So while most of the vocalists are growling or aggressive type vocalists there are also a couple of clean vocalists on the album. It´s actually the tracks with clean vocals that stand out the most and some of the tracks lean more towards traditional heavy metal than they do to death metal ( "Soulside Serpents" is a good example). That´s when the music is most interesting IMO. Honestly we´ve heard most of the things on this album before but it´s delivered with some conviction and the right amount of punch and experience. Let´s not forget we´re talking about one of the grandfathers of Swedish death metal here.

So while I´m not exactly blown back in my seat by the material on "Necronaut" ( there are some issues with the production too), it´s still a rather enjoyable album and a 3 star rating is warranted.