Apocalyptic Nightmare

Sometimes it’s a tough job to write a review, because one is confronted with an album that simply does not work. Although the band uses all elements it needs to pen a satisfying work, something is missing. Necronomicon’s “Apocalyptic Nightmare” is one of those outputs. Yes, there are rasping guitars and a proper degree of velocity. Moreover, I cannot identify technical flaws (don’t expect any form of Sodom-esque or old Kreator-like rumbling) and the lead vocalist does not do a bad job, although he lacks individuality and sounds like the little brother of Destruction’s Schmier.

The problem is that all these details have no relevance whenever a band is not able to put them together cleverly and make a good song out of it. “Apocalyptic Nightmare” was the second full-length of the combo, but Necronomicon’s song-writing skills were still alarmingly weak. All tracks pass by without triggering the wish to listen to them again. Already the opener simply forgets to draw the listener into the album. It’s not the biggest pain in the ass to consume the seven songs, by far not. But it’s shocking that an album full of riffs and high speed rhythms can leave such a feeble overall impression. Okay, the chorus of “In Memory” with its slightly hardcore-influenced background shouts keeps sticking in the ear, but that’s all and that’s not much, to express it politely.

Necronomicon never stood on the sunny side of life. Mostly they received negative reviews in the German media of the eighties and not at least because of this fact I felt certain sympathy for them. Nonetheless, now I must admit that these reviews did not happen by chance. The four dudes string together a million of riffs, but at the end of the day, everything is going nowhere. Obviously, the band sits between the two stools. On the one hand, their material is too straight to fascinate those maniacs who love it to listen to progressive and / or academic sounds. On the other hand, the songs do not have the power to make the underground smile sadistically. The integrity of the line-up is beyond doubt, but that’s not enough to catch the attention of the listener for a long time. The same goes for the production. I cannot say anything bad about it, but its quality doesn’t matter in view of the deficiencies of the songs.

Probably the quartet became the victim of its own ambitions. The overlong songs paint a heterogeneous picture and maybe the stupid artwork mirrors the compositional flaws involuntarily. What does the magician do with an impaled head? Why is this scene witnessed by an oversized skull? In short, the cover is ridiculous. And although this is not the word I want to use to describe the seven songs of “Apocalyptic Nightmare”, I understand very well why this work fell on deaf ears.

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.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Necronomicon were one of the many underground thrash bands that didn't gain much recognition or respect. Hailing from Germany, they never broke through and achieved the level of acclaim or renown as the 'Big Three' of German Thrash, those being Kreator, Destruction and Sodom. Instead they stayed in the underground, released four albums and subsequently split up eleven years after they were formed.

One listen to this can confirm why. While not being a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, this is quite primitive considering the year it was released. It sounds like 'Sentence of Death' or 'Infernal Overkill' (by Destruction, for the three people who don't know) made grittier, sloppier and more repetitive. With myself being a fan of this particular type of thrash metal this is not necessarily a bad thing, but the fact remains that Destruction had done this before in 1984-5, and considering how thrash evolved the previous year this album is two years late. The aforementioned reason could be why they never gained much popularity in the metal scene, as while bands such as Slayer were still paving the way forward for the entrance of Death Metal to the scene, Necronomicon were happy to play primitive thrash which had already been done before and in some cases better.

It is still pretty good though. The music on here is raw, straightforward thrash metal the way it used to be played in the early 80s. There is a big influence from Destruction present, and to a lesser extent from Sodom's first few records, and the album reminds one of the two bands. A gritty production increases the intensity present on many of the songs, with simple yet effective, 'rough' sounding riffs played at a high pace driving them forward. Adding to this is the guitar tone, which is scratchy with a lot of treble present. The vocals are harsh yells that sound undeniably German, complimenting the style of riffing nicely, while the solos remain short and unremarkable.

That's the best way to describe them really. Nothing really stands out or makes you shit yourself, and it remains yet another thrash record. However, this is a fairly good one, and despite it's shortcomings it should not be looked over by German thrash fans due to it being overshadowed by the 'Big Three'. While there are better bands that came out of Germany, this is still worthy of your attention. It's not a masterpiece, but if you want some solid, primitive thrash you can't really go wrong with this.

Necronomicon is a second league German thrash metal band that always stayed in the shadow of The Mighty Three (namely Sodom, Kreator and Destruction) and even in the background of lesser known bands like Deathrow, Exumer, Darkness, etc…, but with that said, I think their albums are still highly enjoyable.

Their second album, ‘Apocalyptic Nightmare’, offers solid, workman-like thrash metal with decent riffs. The sound can best be compared to that of Destruction on their early albums (especially the vocalist could be mistaken for being Schmier), but Necronomicon sound clumsier, never reaching the level Destruction had. But not every band can be a classic, right? At least Necronomicon know their trade, something that can not be said for many other bands, especially nowadays.

When listening to their music, I get the feeling that Necronomicon are absolutely sincere about what they do, and even if their albums are far away from being among the best in the genre, I think they are the very best that they were able to create with limited musical and financial abilities, and that they really put all their effort in them. And it is this feeling of total dedication that can be heard in every single note here, and that commands respect for a band.

Necronomicon are still active today after more than 20 years in the underground and they are still playing thrash metal, so that should tell you enough about their credibility. ‘In memory’ is a pure heavy metal track with a ‘scream along’-chorus (the strong German accent always makes me smile) and some real ‘headbanger’-riffs. Not the best track on here, but it was surely a lot fun when they played it live.

This album is certainly not essential and not even important, but with a couple of friends and some cold beers, ‘Apocalyptic Nightmare’ is always a pleasant listen. Fans of typical German thrash metal should grab this LP if they can find it at a reasonable price. They won’t regret it.