It's been said that writing reviews is only easy when the albums are either very very good, or very very bad - Necronomicon are neither, and rather than waste my time (trying to find a creative way to express just how average this release is) or yours (reading it), I'll make this simple...

Necronomicon are a blend of "Sentence Of Death" era Destruction and [insert your favorite German thrash/speed metal band here], but nowhere near as interesting as either. This is (as far as I know) the bands second release, and I recall thinking their debut was actually quite decent when I heard it back in the mid-eighties, so either the band degraded a bit, or this just isn't standing up too well against the test of time. A couple of the tracks are pretty decent ("The Ancient Ones" and "Apocalyptic Nightmare" in particular), but there's also a few stinkers ("In Memory" being the worst of the lot, mostly due to it's unbelievably inane lyrics). There's nothing really about this release that stands out - the production is fairly standard (a bit on the underproduced side), the playing is of an acceptable level (although it sounds like the band is struggling in places to get some of the more intricate parts right), and the vocals are decent (if somewhat of a blatant attempt to mimic the mighty Schmeir)...

Worth picking up if you're a total fanatic for 80s German thrash/speed metal (especially if you worship all things Destruction-like), but of limited appeal to everyone else because of it's general blandness. Oh, one more thing : the vocalist/guitarist of this outfit happens to be Volker Fredich, and unless that happens to be a very popular name in Germany, this man obviously has no qualms about wearing his influences on his sleeve, as he's none other than the same Volker from Warhammer (the ultimate Hellhammer clone band ever)...

© 1999 chorazaim