Construction of Evil

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.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

When first encountering Necronomicon’s early photos, the natural reaction would likely have been to peg them as German adherents to the post-punk scene of the early 80s, albeit closer to the traditional imagery of bands like The Clash and The Damned. The off-kilter hair styles were the main culprit, as their affection for leathers could have put them in with the Accept crowd, which is somewhat closer to their sound. By contrast, the actual musical presentation is a melodic, almost power metal oriented variant of thrash metal that sounds similar to Destruction, but with a good hint of early German melodic speed ala Rage and Running Wild.

This particular 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 little 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, which sound somewhat like early Paragon ala Martin Christian with maybe a little hint of recent Manilla Road lead work.

Likewise, the band’s mastery of the gang chorus is almost enough to put Anthrax and Overkill to shame. The lead and gang backup interchanges on the chorus sections of “Fiction” and “Paralizer” succeed in being twice as bombastic as what was heard on “Taking Over” or “Among the Living”, while being just a little too aggressive for much of the German power metal scene, though it is likely that Savage Circus, Iron Savior, Paragon, Gamma Ray and even Freedom Call were influenced by this approach to vocal arrangement in varying respects.

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, the latter of which tends to resemble 80s Stormwitch and some hints of Iron Maiden. “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 somber acoustic line to it that meshes with some standard power chord riffing to form a middle ground between Anthrax and Bad Religion. It’s definitely 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 up the past few years.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on August 01, 2008.