The band was formed in 1987 by two high school students, Takaaki Ohkuma (vocals/bass, ex-Criminal Christ and later Multiplex) and Keisuke Matsunaga (guitar/drums, ex-Messiah Death). During their original tenure, they were quite prolific. They recorded two demo tapes in 1988 and 1989 - The Terminal Derangement and Beyond the Truth, respectively - and especially the second demo received a lot of attention in the the worldwide underground scene. Then, with the lineup of Takaaki (bass/vocals), Takashi Tanaka (drumers, later Transgressor and Anatomia) and Kenichi Matsunaga (guitar, later Hellchild), they recorded the Dissociated Modernity EP and a split LP with Singapore's Abhorer, both in 1991, and also played several gigs in the USA with Sadistic Intent, Deceased, and many others; they may be the first Japanese death metal act to play the States.
The original incarnation of NECROPHILE faded out as the members began to play in different bands, but the band reunited and played a gig in December 2012 with the lineup of Takaaki (bass/vocals), Takashi (guitar), and Keisuke (drums). After the reunion, they became active again on the live front and played many gigs in the Tokyo area. Thereafter, they appeared on the Grind Bastards #8 compilation and a split LP with Necrorite, both released in 2014.
But at long last, NECROPHILE's debut album is upon us! Fittingly titled Awakening Those Oppressed, NECROPHILE's first full-length is a literal blast from the past, like the hypothetical album that could've followed that cult split LP with Abhorer. From throttling deathrash to quick 'n' concise grindcore, with plenty of filthy headbanging in between, Awakening Those Oppressed possesses the immediately ingraining charm that recalls more innocent times: death metal's earliest, fledgling years, where subgenre splintering had yet to happen, where bands could plow through a whole range of motions so long as they were dark and, above all, DEATHLY. And that's exactly what NECROPHILE's debut LP is - and it keeps on raging forward, each minute as explosive and exciting as the last. Across ten tracks in 34 minutes, these veterans play with the intensity and enthusiasm of bands half their age. It's not so much a "blast from the past," then, as the past never having stopped: NECROPHILE are eternal, and they're Awakening Those Oppressed!
