Recorded in December '85/January '86 at the Spygel studios on Kirchheim/Teck, West Germany.
Necronomicon is one of those German thrash bands that never got the attention they actually deserved. They always walked through the shadows of the three main bands of the German scene which are Kreator, Destruction, and Sodom. The main reason for that is because Necronomicon has always been compared to Destruction, and I may admit that the comparisons are very legitimate. Yes, both bands in their early years sounded very similar to each others, and in nearly every way, which can make people think that Necronomicon was just a copy and that they released nothing original compared to them. The first record of Destruction was way back in 1984, and then here in 1986, we saw the release of the self-titled album Necronomicon, which was their first official album, two years later. In fact, this is what caused Necronomicon to have less attention than their country mates. However, this doesn't remove the fact that awesome music came out of these guys, being influenced by the mates of Destruction, how could they go wrong anyway..?
Well, this is the only problem with "Necronomicon", it just came out too late, and other bands released something similar before them. Despite those details, let's get our fact straight, this album is a fucking piece of violent and brutal German thrash, it has all what an adept of 80s European thrash want in an album, in my opinion. "Necronomicon" has a running time of 37 minutes featuring 8 songs. There are quite a bit of variety out there though, such as "Insanity" which is a song of barely 3 minutes, with a drum solo/intro of 1 minute in it. But we also have songs like "Dark Land", the longest track with a length of nearly 7 minutes, showing off what the band is capable of musically. The first thing that catch our attention when listening the album is the unique sound quality, I am not speaking quality-wise but rather in rawness, because the album has a somewhat "punkish" sound on it, which is a pretty damn cool thing. The songwriting on the album is great, they had a lot of great ideas for sure, but like I said before, they were inspired by what Destruction did earlier, especially on their first album "Infernal Overkill" in 1985, a year before. They basically continued in their own way, what Destruction has stopped doing in 1986.
The musicianship on the album is far from top-notch, but it's still great enough to enjoy everything that is played, especially for a first effort. The mix on the album is pretty much what you would expect from a record with that production work. I would say that the main focus on the album is the guitars, because they are somewhat higher in the mix than the other instruments. but in general, the mix is pretty good, despite having some difficulties hearing the bass in some tracks. The drums are well-performed, using basic thrash technic. The vocals of Freddy are basically a worship of Schmier, they have a really similar tone (which is a good thing for Destruction's fans), and you can also notice some harsh screams, which proves even more my point. Another interesting thing on the album is the kind of riffs we have. Yes, the type of riffs are similar to those of Destruction, but Necronomicon made great additions to it, by expanding even more what they did before. You will also hear the typical fancy guitar solos like in Destruction. The most popular song is indeed "Possessed by Evil", which is a unique original piece of the German thrash scene and is mainly considered a classic. The song was eventually picked-up to feature on a compilation album a year later.
The lyrical content of the album has never been released or revealed by the band, but it's pretty easy to tell that the subjects are generally the same as the other German bands of that time. Those subjects include the occult, evil, and satanic stuff. I noticed that when hearing passages like this one in "Hades Invasion", "This is Satan sacrifice, Lucifer takes your souls away". I think it made out clear about what they're singing about. Overall, this is not the catchiest album ever, but songs like "Blind Destruction" or "Iron Charm" has solid choruses, this is the kind of songs that got stuck in my head for a bit of time. In an overview, there's no bad tracks on this album at all, each track have their great moments and killer riffs.
Finally, I obviously recommend people to give the album a few listens. This is the kind of album that needs to grow in you before appreciating its evil art, but once you're into it, you will dig it and see its catchiness. If you're a 80s German thrash metal fan, especially Destruction, then you need to look up to it. I give a high rating for this record compared to other reviewers because in my book, this is an undeniable classic German thrash album.
Bonus video:
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