You have to be very careful if you choose to call your album 'Idiosyncrasy'. It is a pretty loaded word for an artist to appropriate, so pinning it to a cover with the band doing a Reservoir Dogs thing that had been done to death a decade ago is probably unwise. Still, as a friend pointed out they are Italian so may well be just naturally sharp dressers. Ah well; on to the music.
Necrodeath are the kind of band who can rightly and proudly call themselves veterans: Formed in 1985, albeit with a lay off 1989-1998, they've been putting out thrash/death consistently over their time which always kind of warms my heart. When you're not a household name that is impressive commitment.
This years beast is just under an hours worth of music split into seven otherwise untitled parts. I assume this means an overall concept, though without the benefit of lyrics I have a sinking feeling it might be 'fallen angels'. With the cover, that kind of worries me. So assume I'm wrong.
It begins with the snarl of some dog/beast and the soft voice of a choir as a guitar slowly winds up. A rising voice ends declaring being free from God and we're off into a nice, crisp mid-paced drum driven chug. Not a million miles away from a less muscular One Man Army & The Undead Quartet in a Death/Thrash way. It bounces along nicely enough on the crest of a clear production. Good twisting vocals snap, snarl and growl and some deft lead work allows the melody to flare up along the way, too. The problem is, though, at over eight minutes it over stays its welcome for me and ends up sounding like an overlong intro I'm afraid.
Part II has more character, particularly in some good, varied vocals and the pace shifts into thrash propelled by a solid rhythm section and fluid guitar breaks. The chorus has a nice hook too so I find myself nodding along to it happily.
Part III brings in a little acoustic work between the riffs, a sombre tone that reminds me of old Metallica here and there, a blackened feel also curling round the edges. But when the latter part winds up the pace I gradually become lost and unmoved. I never quite regain the momentum either.
It seems such a shame. Not only are these guys a solid troupe, but there are good ideas here, too. Just somehow the interest keeps sliding away from me. The songs are universally long and whilst there are changes of pace and variety to the vocals, they end up feeling unfocused and sprawling rather than intense blows. I am left with a feeling of familiarity to the riffs, a repetition that I am sure isn't there really. It is perhaps more a sense of something dragging rather than being propelled.
It is odd, because as I say there are ideas here but the length saps the energy and urgency too much of tracks as individuals and the album as a whole. If it was a novel I would suggest a more forceful editor was needed, maybe?
Solid band, clearly, but I'll have to pass on this offering I'm afraid.
http://www.myspace.com/necrodeath100x100
http://www.necrodeath.net
Gizmo
MTUK HOME
