100% Hell

The predecessor of "100% Hell" was the first album after the reunion of Necrodeath that did not completely meet my expectations. Due to the ambivalence of "Ton(e)s of Hate", I was very excited about the here presented full-length. Despite all the glory of the genre´s history, we have to admit that a lot of thrash bands slowly but surely became softened caricatures of themselves. Just think of... No, I do not want to mention names in order to stay diplomatic. But Necrodeath did not join the ranks of these poor creatures. "100% Hell" continued the thrilling course of their first albums after the comeback. Aside from this, the line-up had changed. The new guitarist Andy showed up in order to replace Claudio who had been involved in Necrodeath since their blackened debut. But this personnel change did not have negative consequences on the band´s sound.

Especially the first songs after the more or less superfluous intro were peppered with precisely targeted riffs. This applied to the thrashing speed monsters as well as to the sinister "Master of Morphine". The experienced musicians knew their arsenal of weapons. The screaming of Flegias was comparable with an extremely sharp knife, the machine gun fire of the drums constantly alternated between single and rapid fire and the guitars delivered a solid dose of nerve gas that filled the room. Necrodeath flexed its muscles while presenting tons of evil sounding melodies. The songs shone with a simple directness without being at risk to be blamed for primitiveness. In my opinion, the furious "War Paint", equipped with howling guitars of the finest kind, was the best of those songs that focused on aggression and velocity. But the aforementioned "Master of Morphine" and the desperately creeping "Identity Crises" (enjoy its emotionless female vocals) provided a stunning contrast to the orgy of aggression. Their main riffs were simply fantastic and strong enough to make these tunes future classics of the band. The catchy melodies did not lack of power so that commercial aspects did not prevail. Finally, Flegias showed a different style of singing. It matched perfectly with the subliminal viciousness of these awesome pieces. This was a welcome change, although his slightly insane screeching during the more vehement outbursts also left its mark in a very impressive manner.

The album was absolutely convincing. Nevertheless, some small points of criticism existed. They prevented an even better rating. For example, the lyrics of "The Wave" dealt with the Tsunami catastrophe in Winter 2004 in an inappropriate and very cynical way. In addition, the sixth and the eighth number failed to reach the usually high level of the Italians. One could say that the recipe for this album consisted of 60% fury, 25% gloominess and 15% average thrash metal. In view of this mixture, I suggest you to check out this record. It concluded with the title track which was meant to be a musical monument. But despite its unusual length of more than nine minutes, the song failed to develop in an outstanding manner. Some parts were really convincing, but too many breaks killed the power of the tune. A good track, but not that kind of monster that I had expected.

Necrodeath of the 2006 are, in my opinion, improvement, comparing “100% Hell” album to “Ton(e)s Of Hate”. This new album is surely better in songwriting and much more violent. It doesn’t reach to level of violence and evil like in the albums until “Mater Of All Evil” but anyway it’s quite enjoyable.

Songs like “Forever Slaves” and “War Paint” are good examples of violent black/thrash for example, with Flegias' vocals always evil and screamed. There is a good alternation of up tempo parts to mid paced, evil riffs. The production is perfect and reminds me a bit the recent Destruction one. Even the riffs are thrashy. The use of some deep and evocative growls is a trademark for the group.

In my opinion the true hit here is “Master Of Morphine”, a truly good song that seems to come out from “Mater Of All Evil” with its occult touch during the arpeggios. When the electric guitars enter the difference from the other tracks is inevitable: this is simply the best song here. “The Wave” song is pure impact with some good mid paced moments in the central part.

“Theoretical And Artificial” song is the second best in this album: there are excellent, obscure and evil lead guitar lines mixed with the power of thrash to create a really gloomy/violent song. “Identity Crisis” reminds me a bit the atmosphere in “Fragments Of Insanity” album; it’s a mid paced one with some use of keys to create the atmosphere and some female, whispered vocals. Quite good one.

“Beautiful-Brutal World” is again total impact (excellent screamed refrain) while “Hyperbole” is an instrumental one, just to prepare use to the title track: 9 minutes of continue tempo changes, from distorted arpeggios to up tempo, passing through drums intermezzos and evil atmospheres. A complete song. Excellent. A very good return, not as good as “Mater Of All Evil” but very “Necrodeath” anyway. Good work.