Necronomicon – Construction Of Evil

Limited collector's colored vinyl LP pressing. The album adheres very strongly to the original mixture of aggressive vocal shouts and melodic riffing observed on their early albums, but with a much cleaner production and a bit of an awareness of the newer German Power Metal acts that came out of the mid to late 1990s such as Paragon and Iron Savior. This is particularly noticeable in the peculiar sound and character of the lead guitar tracks. 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. Stylistically, the variation in approach from song to song mostly hearkens back to the mid to late 80s approach, mostly being dominated by speed songs with the occasional slower rocker and token half-ballad. Alight and Hills of Dead have a lot of German pre-Thrash elements and NWOBHM leanings. Terrorist Attack definitely carries some heavy Accept influences, as well as a gloomy piano line which is fairly uncharacteristic for a straight Thrash Metal outfit. Fireball has this sombre acoustic line to it that meshes with some standard Power chord riffing to form a middle ground between Anthrax and Bad Religion. It's certainly the catchiest and vocally melodic of what's on here, but occasionally kicks in the speed to keep it from being a straight power ballad. To the prospective shopper of faster Metal with a taste for the old school, this is something that can appeal equally to fans of Old-school Thrash Metal, early US Power Metal and early German Speed Metal. The only thing that the latter two groups of fans should consider is that Freddy Fredrich's gravely vocal style is more akin to the semi-melodic shouts of Kreator and Destruction than the less dirty melodic vocal approach of Rolf Kasperek or Udo Dirkschneider. But for fans of German Thrash Metal, this is far superior to what most of their scene has been offering in the first decade of the current century.

1. Stormbringer
2. Hard Pain
3. From Hell
4. Alight
5. Hills of Dead
6. Paralizer
7. Terrorist Attack
8. Fiction
9. Fireball
10. Bone Daddy
11. Insanity
12. Possessed Again

Label: Metal Scrap Records

Catalog: 190

Genre: Heavy Metal