Necronomicon - The Final Chapter (2021)

Although Necronomicon was once written off as a bit of a lower tier alternative to Destruction, it's amusing that such a comparison has become one of the real strengths of The Final Chapter. Almost from the beginning of this disc, you're belted with these meaty thrash riffs that sound a whole lot like that other band in their modern phase circa All Hell Breaks Loose and The Antichrist, and then the vocals arrive, in particular the chorus which sounds exactly like Schmier, and not a bad way, especially when pitching a chorus like "I am the violence!", which to my dumb American ears sounds like "I am the wiolence!" and just makes the whole thing all the more endearing. And this is actually a template for nearly the entire album, short and muscular tunes that definitely make you want to give or receive a beating.

And I'll tell you...I don't know that anything more is needed? For as aged as this band is, like their better known 'German Big Four' peers, they sound aggressive, driven, and quite far from the nursing home. Riff patterns here are exceedingly simple, and never quite original, but delivered with enough blunt force and then glazed with spurious leads, and even some functional atmospheric melodies as in "Wall of Pain". At some points, like in that same track, they'll graft the melodies even more directly into the verse or chorus riffs (like the intro to "Purgatory" which almost sounds like Running Wild for a second), and it just creates a well-rounded experience that proves there is some mileage left here. The vocals might indeed stay derivative, but if I'm being honest, that style of pinched, constipated snarl is a treat whether it's the original or not. Necronomicon also balances that off with some lower snarls and guttural barks to ramp up the heaviness, and they never sound too cheesy or ill-placed. The rhythm section on this one is just in perfect lockstep...you won't find a lot of interesting bass lines or drum breaks, but in order to drive the important factor of those riffs and vocals, it's 100% effective.

Could the tunes be more nuanced and interesting? Probably, but for what it's worth I listened through the whole album numerous times and never felt any desire to skip past anything, it's one of the more catchy and listenable efforts they've put out over their 30+ years, and nice and loud when the double bass batteries and carnal vocals start firing off in tandem. The cover art isn't the best with that samey sort of skull in the center and the font, but it's a minor complaint once you plug this in and start the headbanging. Necromonicon deserves all the credit for keeping itself alive and finding a consistent stride so late in their career, and of that lesser wave of Teutonic thrashers like Accuser, Darkness, Assassin, Exumer, and Vendetta, they seem to be one who has figured out what works and stuck to it, while leaving themselves just enough room to play around in. Good on them.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://necronomicon-online.de/

Necronomicon - Unleashed Bastards (2018)

Unlike a few of their thrashing peers in the German underground, Necronomicon never really took some huge break from the music. Sure, there was a decade of general inactivity between Screams in 1994 and 2004's Construction of Evil, but otherwise the band has been somewhat consistent in productivity, dropping a new disc every 3-4 years. Never really among the forefront of the Teutonic titans, possibly due to the constant comparisons to Schmier and Destruction, they've actually held up pretty evenly in the quality of what they release, with a lot of average-to-decent tier albums, the best of which have been Revenge of the Beast and Pathfinder... Between Heaven and Hell, at least among their 21st century offerings. Unleashed Bastards continues the legacy of those works, another of their more elaborately written albums, which certainly sounds like no effort was spared in putting it together despite any lack of expectations that the thrash audience might have.

There are a couple flaws...for instance, the cover art is really shitty, some aberration of their Chaly like winged skull mascot superimposed with half an evil woman face, and completed by the tacky album title font. Doesn't bode well for what you're about to hear, and that's too bad, because this album delivers on many fronts. The other setback here is that, for all the detail and extravagance on exhibition throughout Unleashed Bastards, a lot of the tunes center around some really generic riffs that you've heard a thousand times before. Does Necromonicon offer enough relish on top of this fundamentally predictable core to help offset that fact? I'd say they do, because the album has a great flow to it, with plenty of variation in the riff-sets, lots of good leads and melodies applied to the duller rhythm guitars to help spice them up and keep the ears fixed. Tracks like "Forbid Me from Living" and "Imperial Hunger" really soar through the roof, not only because of these guitars but also the resonant, Schmier-like vocal quality of the band's long time axeman-singer Freddy.

He has that ability to pitch that nasty Germanic mid-range bite into the stratosphere with some great chorus-work that patches up many misgivings I'd have for some of the verse riffs. The lead guitars if a little forgettable, are all thrown in at the right times and places, and combined with the heavy use of melody there is easily an appeal here for fans of bands like Heathen, Forbidden, Paradox, Deathrow,etc. The rhythm section is rock tight with some great drum tone throughout, and busy bass-work in spots that really help lend the tunes some replay value. They'll also throw out a couple tunes with unexpected structures like "Malevolent", which takes its time ramping up to the neckbreaking. All told, this is some pro stuff here, with a production that I can't find any complaints about. The packaging might suck, but Unleashed Bastards has vaulted itself to my favorite album of their post-2000 catalog, and  second favorite only to Escalation among their entire discography. Perhaps not among my thrash picks for the year, but these guys prove why they've remained in the game for so long.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] 

http://necronomicon-online.de/

Necronomicon - Pathfinder...Between Heaven and Hell (2015)

Pathfinder...Between Heaven and Hell is the eight album in a 30+ year career by a band that has hardly broken out beyond a small audience of die hard Teutonic thrashers, but while you might look at that as some proof of failure, it's also proof of consistency and sincerity. Necronomicon is not in this game to make friends and brown-nose trends, the differences between the material they make now and what they were putting out in 1986 are largely through minor aesthetic shifts, professionalism in production details, and all around seasoning. Where the band was never really a stranger to incorporating speed, heavy and power metal elements into their proper thrashing, this effort is probably where that practice becomes most evident, and I'd be lying if I claimed that it didn't strengthen the overall product.

Now, the band has always more or less stood in the shadows of the far better known Destruction, and this is due primarily to the similarity in vocal styles, that nasty, pinched, slightly melodic rasp that the magnificent Schmier used (and still uses) to convert the world. That timbre is certainly retained to top off this  new material, with Volker 'Freddy' Fredrich remaining in place as the sole original member, but when it gets to the riffing I noticed a lot more semblance to other bands. You've got fast picked speed metal licks, and a lot of strong solid chords which honestly reminded me more of how groups like Accept, U.D.O. and Primal Fear put together songs, only with the clear differences in vocals. Perhaps a more direct comparison could be drawn to Schmier's other bands like Headhunter or his recent heavy metal 'supergroup' Panzer, since they show tendencies to more traditional metal than his mainstay. Truly, Pathfinder is more of this than it is pure thrashing, and thus you're getting a lot of solid, moody hooks and chord selections in cuts like "Reborn" which are pretty good; Freddy's voice wavers and cuts through the meatier rhythms with a nice, clinical slice.

Big drums, thick bass that doesn't veer too much from the rhythm lines, and plenty of variation round out a substantial record upon which quite a number of tunes go well past 6-7 minutes and don't fill out their bulk with boredom. Not all the riffs are winners, and few of them will feel unfamiliar if you've been listening to these styles the last 30-40 years, but it's evident that a great deal of care and craft went into each, and so the 70 minutes of content is consistently robust if not exceedingly catchy. Fans of classic bands like Iron Maiden will discover rather obvious homages, as in "Alone in the Dark", and I actually heard a lot of similarities to some of the grimier tunes by the late X-Wild, especially with that mesh of harsher, rasping vocals with the consonant, melodic power metal rhythm guitars. But a lot of this is pretty straight Priest/Accept worship with the occasional lapse back into thrashier territory, and even though I wouldn't say that they constantly mete out the most memorable phrases, respect has to be given that so late in their career they'd take some of the edge off, or at least invest in a different brand of razor to write something so measured, fluent and mature. Enjoyed this more than their prior album Invictus, and right around the same level as their 2008 full-length Revenge of the Beast.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://necronomicon-online.de/

Necronomicon - Invictus (2012)

The tenacity of second/third tier Teutonic thrash acts like Wicca, Vendetta, Accu§er, and Necromonicon is nothing short of inspirational. Even if the best most of them can muster are average beatings which pay tribute to their individual legacies, while dowsing them in the production standards of the present, the very fact that they've overcome large gulfs in their careers and returned with a sound remarkably inattentive to trends touches some murky space in my heart. Sure, some will argue that they're merely attempting to use the present rekindling of their genre as a 'second chance' at the spotlight, and that if they really cared they wouldn't have vanished in the first place, but the sounds I'm hearing on their records, while often flawed and unmemorable, do not at all mirror such a sentiment.

Necronomicon has long been a less structured, less impressive alternative to its popular peer Destruction, but there's no doubt that they've evolved their writing through time, and even less that they've improved as far as production. Earlier works like Escalation and Apocalyptic Nightmare had a particular charm to them, all thanks to the coat of amateurish grime that a low budget permits, but since reforming in the 21st century they've ramped up considerably for a more professional sound. In this, too, they reflect the changes of Schmier and crew, but where that band maintains a firm, angry thrashing presence, Necromonicon seems to veer off into a slightly power metal territory on a number of their tracks here, perhaps more reminiscent of Headhunter. Certain tracks here highlight this more than others. For example, "Invictus" itself has a riff in there that sounds a lot like on of Priest's "Painkiller" guitar progressions, while "Unleashed" and "Unconquered" are total power/thrash hybrids with leads that reflect the more driving, melodic side of the spectrum, akin to post-90s Rage.

Freddy's rasped vocals, however, remain almost fully within the snarled thrash camp that was represented on the earlier albums, and the combination of the Germanic raging mutes and chords and his fevered grit is one of the strengths of Invictus. As usual, Necromonicon is a fairly dynamic band. You'll get plenty of variation like the Iron Maiden bass break in "Unconquered" or the acoustic intro to "Face to the Wall" (another spot where they remind me of Judas Priest from the intro to "Night Crawler"), but the best parts of the record are almost unanimously where they throw down the gauntlet of aggression in "Pandora's Box", "Thoughts Running Free", though these too have a clear Euro power metal imprint circa Accept, etc. There's also a sweet re-recording of "Possessed by Evil" from their s/t debut (1986), and I love the sheer enthusiasm of the vocals and the bricklaying of the guitars. Perhaps an entire remake of the first two albums would not be such a bad idea in a modern context?

Ultimately, though, Invictus is not all that great an album, and I felt that it fell shy of even its direct predecessor Revenge of the Beast in 2008. It's not bad, mind you. Necronomicon has a mature, seasoned sound to them, but it rarely manifests in a song that endure in the memory for more than a few minutes. Add to this the derivative construction of many of the guitar riffs and you get another album which seems wholly content with settling into mediocrity. What I'd love to hear is for this band to go utterly fucking crazy. Look at the explosions Paradox has written since their own desire to once more breach the theater of warfare. Necronomicon once had a snarling, raw character to them redolent of Sentence of Death, and I would not be averse to hearing some of that over the redundant power metal riffs that saturate this record. Invictus is not a total shot in the dark: it's balanced and professional, it just doesn't excel in the songwriting, which is what I most look for in any record of this type. That said, if you LOVE that old German tone and the recent efforts from peers like Vendetta, you might give it a listen.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

http://necronomicon-online.de/

Necronomicon - Revenge of the Beast (2008)

Necronomicon made an honest attempt at a comeback on 2004's Construction of Evil, but it was ultimately just not interesting or exciting enough, and frankly a little too clean and spiffy when compared to the band's more charming, rugged past of Escalation or Apocalyptic Nightmare. Revenge of the Beast seeks to repair this dilemma, and it succeeds with somewhat less than flying colors. That is to say, this is no perfect, long-due masterpiece of pure 80s speed punishment, but it's damned well the best album the band have whipped up since 20 years prior. The band is still drawing from the same well as their more famous peers Sodom and Destruction, but they do so with enough finesse to get the blood circulating and the limbs thrashing out in anger.

First, the tone here just destroys Construction of Evil. The guitars are savage and powerful, and even when fucking about with the less well-formed riffs, they sound potent enough to grind meat with. Volker Fredrich likewise sounds great, like a cousin to both Schmier and Angelripper, his sneering giving the music below all the authentic character it needs to charm the German thrash diehard. Some songs are a lot more effective than others, for example "Haunted" is a step up from the opener "Magic Forest", and "Warfare" has superb vocals over the thrashing charge in between the acoustic segues. "Nightstalker" and "On Pain of Death" deliver nothing but sheer, forceful barbarity, while later cuts like "Commit Suicide" and the ballad "One Universe" break the mold for some softer material, but don't really leave a major impression (though it's bold of Necronomicon to attempt something like "One Universe", and it might have made a curious opening cut here rather than being tucked towards the close).

What the album really lacks is, as so typical of thrash metal in the 21st century, the killer chorus. A band like Necronomicon, with 25 or more years under its belt, should understand the concept pretty well, but what we get here are the typical escalations that don't distinguish themselves in the memory of the listener, and rarely if ever stand above the riffs in the verse sequences. It's a pretty common problem, but since the rest of the formula these bands are using does so well to ape the sincerity of the 80s, why not go all the way? Thrash classics from bands as wide as Metallica, Anthrax and Kreator knew how to get you humming a song 20-30 years after the fact, but I doubt there's anything on Revenge of the Beast that will rattle around in the cranium for more than it takes to listen to the album. That being said, I must give some credit to the band for finally, after so many years, sticking it out and aiming true.

Aside from Escalation, this would be the go-to album for checking out Necronomicon. But let's hope they take the potential here and really bring us to our knees next time out.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://www.myspace.com/possessedbythrash

Necronomicon - Construction of Evil (2004)

With the major Teutonic thrash titans back in full swing, reaping audiences both new and old through solid touring and releases, it was only a matter of time before those bands that once stood in their shadows would also bleed forward into a new era. Necronomicon was perhaps sometimes known as a 'poor man's Destruction', but they had their moments, most notably 1988's Escalation. After that, they took a few long naps in between releases, with one arriving in the 90s (Screams) and then, a decade beyond that, they reignited the fires of inspiration yet again to produce Construction of Evil, with most of the lineup of the prior decade still intact and a fresh studio sound that easily dominates their backlog.

There are still comparisons to be made to that other German band, especially as Volker's vocals still persist in their painful pinch ala Schmier, but the riffs seem to have come into a life of their own. Much of Construction of Evil has a tight, consistent flow to it, a steady menstruation of violence, fun tracks like "Stormbringer", "Paralizer", "Bone Daddy" and "Hard Pain" loaded with well meaning guitars, flighty leads and bitter, biting vocals. In fact, I feel safe in stating that this was Volker's best personal performance, he's great at those little screams courtesy of 80s Destruction, and he sounds admirably ruthless throughout. But despite the competent appeal to genre hounds, there's just not much of an impact to the album in the long run. There are a number of slight missteps like the awkward intro to "Fireball", the oddly rocking "Alight" or the more mediocre tracks like "Terrorist Attack" or "Insanity" which are too easily skipped.

Naturally, the mix here is far superior to what they've done before, from a technical standpoint. The instruments are very well balanced, the vocals at the forefront without robbing the guitars of their power, but in a way, I'm not sure this cleanliness becomes Necronomicon. Though their earlier songwriting was disjointed and often sloppy, there was a particular charm to their lo fidelity atmosphere that created a cult appeal when listening, even if the compositional level left much to desire. Here, they've cleaned up, but just become another standard sounding band that follows in the footstep of the obvious. Construction of Evil is not nearly at the level of Enemy of God, The Antichrist, or Sodom's s/t, so they don't generate all that much excitement, even if the vocals are pretty slick. But at least the band had become more seriously inclined, and we wouldn't need another decade to wait for their next offering.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

http://www.myspace.com/possessedbythrash

Necronomicon - Screams (1994)

It took Necronomicon a few efforts in the 80s to finally score, with their third album Escalation, and thus it felt rather anticlimactic that they dropped off the face of the Earth for six years after that. But in 1994, they finally pulled their shit together to produce Screams, a work which sees a leap forward in studio standards, if not really a leap forward in quality. This is still a sound close to Destruction, thanks largely to the riffs and vocals of Volker Fredrich, with that same nasally aggression as Schmier, but I'd daresay that the variety in the writing here better parallels the work of his Headhunter, who infused more melody and traditional heavy metal influence into the thrashing base, and were in the midst of doing so when Screams was released.

The band had grabbed a new bassist by this point, another in a very long line of bassists (which might help explain their inconsistency in putting out albums), Bernhard Matt, but otherwise they remain the same. "Final Course", "Temptation", "Irreversible Destruction" (don't laugh), and the oddly titled "Groovy Mouth" all sound very similar to what Destruction were writing around the mid to late 80s, though the guitars are a little more blunt than Sifringer riffs, and the band uses more gang shouting alongside Volker. None are very good, but none are badly written for that matter. Where the album grows slightly in quality is where it takes you by surprise, like the moody, rising heavy metal ballad "Bitter Sweet Perversion", or the pure ballad "Ruins (They Will Cry Tomorrow"), both of which are fairly memorable, despite the more emotional vocals, the latter sounding not unlike a Scorpions piece.

The band had still come a ways since their s/t Necromonicon in 1986, but Screams is hardly a phoenix rising from the ashes. Few of the songs here are as catchy as those on Escalation, and the album seems strangely out of place in time, but this is due to the huge gulfs of time both preceding and following its release (they won't release Construction of Evil for a decade after this) which make it a curiosity. However, I'll give the German band some credit. They could have reassembled and changed their style to groove/thrash like most of the hideous bands of the day, trying to reinvent themselves, but they did no such thing. Sure, Necronomicon is derivative of another better known band, but they at least play some decent music, and the duration of their career despite a breakout success reeks of authenticity. But if it's your first exposure to their charnel charms, you're better served by Escalation or even Apocalyptic Nightmare.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/possessedbythrash

Necronomicon - Escalation (1988)

Escalation seems like the perfect title for the third Necronomicon full-length, due to its direct correlation to the quality of the album. After a pair of duds in the debut Necronomicon and the well meaning sophomore Apocalyptic Nightmare, the Germans had hit their stride, no longer just a mirror of the better known Destruction, but a band with something of worth to offer on their own. That's not to say that they had suddenly bloomed into a garden of innovation and supreme songcraft, because this is still not a top shelf release, yet it's the first of their effort that I'd honestly label entertaining and fun. It's also the last in their deal with Gama Records, but despite a few reissues, the album has sadly gathered no moss as it rolled down the heights into obscurity.

The band was down to a three piece here, with Volker Fredrich and Jürgen Weltin picking up the bass duties from the departed Lars Honeck. Fredrich still sounds mildly similar to Schmier of Destruction, and yet he's acquired a harsher, standout bark to his tone that ends itself towards an individual distinction. There are also a number of well-placed gang shouts here that propel his presence quite nicely ("Death Toll", "Black Frost", "Murder of Profit"). But most importantly, where the band always seemed to have a problem plotting out convincing songs before, they've really gelled here. Each of the tracks holds its own weight in riffs, and half of them are actually memorable. "Death Toll" has some great guitars and bass, whether they're thrusting along the speedway of the bridge or chopping out the slower verse chugging. "Skeletal Remains" is the closest to Destruction, but nonetheless excellent; "Mosh the ABC" defies its terrible title with bristling energy; "...And the Night Will Be Silent" reminds me of old Slayer, Hell Awaits era, but with gang shouts and more melody. "Cold Ages (Darkland III)" is a fitting sequel to the band's ongoing series, superior to either of the previous chapters.

Perhaps the one glaring and awkward song here is "Dirty Minds", which feels like sort of punk rock corny anthem, despite the fact that it veers off into perfectly acceptable territory. No one wants to hear Fredrich making such sounds as he does before the verse, even if he compensates with wicked laughter. Strangely, there are a few decent riffs tucked in there, and had it gone for a straight up German mid paced metal track like S.A.D.O. would write, it might have worked. Otherwise, the album is consistently well executed, with great leads and a fine, airy, lo-fi tone that doesn't betray the rugged roots of their prior works. Necronomicon might not be an A-list thrash act for their nation, never spoken of in the same breaths as Kreator, Sodom or Tankard; but Escalation is their crown jewel, the first album you should check out if you've seen the name and manifested some interest. It's fun, it's not too serious, and it's more than capable of whipping up a headbanging storm from anyone into that age old German tone.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

http://necronomicon-online.de/

Necronomicon - Apocalyptic Nightmare (1987)

Necronomicon's Apocalyptic Nightmare is a notable advancement over their s/t debut, even if it's not quite a shedding of the band's inevitable Destruction comparisons. Volker Fredrich still sounds a hell of a lot like Schmier, with his harsh bite that ascends into feverish screaming, and the riffing is in general aggressive, with a fuzzy tone to the guitars that begs comparisons to Sentence of Death or Eternal Devastation. But in other areas, the band have clearly improved, like the lead work or the individual quality of the riffs. In fact, there are probably 2-3 songs here that are downright good, but they've still got a few hurdles to leap.

The first is that the band have made another questionable choice of their opening track. "The Ancient Ones" might have more of a vocal presence than the last album's vanguard, but a minute or so is spent just plucking along on the guitars with very little drum presence, and it feels clunky at best. Once the rest of the band joins in the punishment, there is a marked improvement, but it's not packing some of the album's better music. Nor is the mid-paced title track, but at least the guitars here don't sound like their more esteemed German peers. There is a sequel of sorts to "Dark Land", "The Following Century (Darkland II)", spotted with some decent segments, though the transitions feel sloppy; "Rhetorical Dictums" is just fast and frenzied, average thrash.

Necronomicon have saved some of their best material for the latter half of this album: "In Memory" shows some promise through its clean, eerie intro and cavalcade of storming riffs; "Retributive Strike" is solid and engaging, though I feel like it's short on vocals; and "Broken Illusions" should thrill any fan of Destruction, though it often begins to trip over itself. It, too, seems lacking on vocal quantity, which is a shame because where they exist, Fredrich is firm and vicious. The mix of the record is brighter and better than Necronomicon, and there are really only a few flaws that the band would need to work through before they had a winner on their hands. The compositions are still a little cluttered, in particular the trade off of the riffs, and there seem to be too many places on the albums where Volker's presence would have been welcome in more than just his guitar. But if you're looking for a 'poor man's Destruction or one of the rare albums to channel the same scathing defilement as Sentence of Death, then this is not a terrible place to look for it.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

http://necronomicon-online.de/

Necronomicon - Necronomicon (1986)

Had Necronomicon's s/t debut been released just a few years before, and had a more consistent quality to it, it might have been this band that we were hailing as one of the 'Big Three' of thrash metal, in place of...Destruction. I only say this because the album sounds quite a lot like Schmier and company, only far more sloppy, as if it were released before the proper amount of gestation could transpire. But the riffing methods sound very similar, the level of musical ability once they get fired up, and of course the vocals of Volker Fredrich, which sound like Schmier if he had his throat clogged with a particularly nasty head cold. In fact, Volker might even sound a little more bloodied and aggressive, but clunky and not nearly so distinct.

The biggest issue with Necronomicon in its original release was the decision to with "Dark Land", which is almost 7 minutes of choppy, mostly instrumental thrash (there are a few vocal lines in the middle) which is a roller coaster of good and bad ideas. Often, the bass will feel out of key, for example, though I recognize they were trying to create a subversive effect with it. There are also a lot of stop/start riffs which feel in desperate need of streamlining with properly written transitions, and ultimately it's a seething mess. "Possessed by Evil" and "Bloody Revenge" are improvements, with more cohesive composition, a pastiche of Destruction, Sodom and Running Wild style riffs, but neither is quite enduring, nor is the speed/rush of "Insanity" with its lengthy drum intro. You have to pluck much deeper into the album to find the better material, like the noodling bombast of "Blind Destruction", spiked walls of "Hades Invasion" or the carnal blaze of "Magic Forest", but none of these are exemplary and the riffs don't leave a lasting impression.

I hate to keep drawing the same comparison, and I'm sure the band has heard it a thousand times and hates it, but this really comes off as the poor man's Destruction (or Sodom, if we're thinking of just In the Sign of Evil and Obsessed by Cruelty). None of the songs really have that distinct quality that transforms them into legend, and the lyrical topics and guitar tones all sound as if they'd been committed to the annals of thrashistory already by the previous year. The album doesn't expand upon or even offer a worthwhile, sidereal journey to any of the ripping released that had already spawned, and it feels like more of the same, a step backward and down off the podium. Granted, it's not terrible, and it has a rugged charm to it you won't find around modern thrash metal releases today, but it's far too easily forgotten in the face of even this band's later catalog (yes, they will improve on the subsequent albums).

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10]

http://necronomicon-online.de/