Mater of All Evil

Necrodeath disappeared after two convincing albums. The more or less legitimate successor of the band, Schizo, followed another approach due to its more progressive songwriting. Inter alia because of this new direction, the harsh early outputs of Necrodeath never fell into oblivion. Therefore, the comeback of the group was just a question of time. Drummer Peso and guitarist Claudio formed the well-known backbone of the new line-up. But the most conspicuous contribution was delivered by the new lead vocalist called Flegias. This guy was obviously insane - and no doctor was around in order to cure him. His rasping and hysterical voice appeared as a sonic cluster bomb. The omnipresent nagging characterised the album in an impressive manner. This led to a special situation. On the one hand, the band offered an almost forgotten track from 1985 ("Iconoclast"), on the other hand the vocals had the effect of a rejuvenation cure. Without tearing down the bridge between the past and the present, Necrodeath had generated a new sound. Thus, maybe they did not find the solution to the squaring of the circle. Nevertheless, due to this development, the musicians had all the trumps in their hands - and they knew how to use them. Eleven diversified thrash hammers documented this.

After the passable, but surprisingly unimposing opener, the band was taking off like a rocket. "Flame of Malignance" shone with razor-sharp riffs, abrupt breaks and a devastating chorus. Without lacking in depth, the track came as a redefinition of ferocity. The majority of the further songs also offered a truly furious approach. But sinister acoustic parts, for example the first tones of "Black Soul", were also carefully integrated. Thanks to the musicianship and the technical competence, Necrodeath was able to combine the different song parts to a very fitting overall package. The Italians got wild like former prisoners who had been behind bars for much too long. The skillfully handled tempo changes led to a dynamic appearance of the album. The same applied to the different demonic background voices that showed up. Flegias could not complain about insufficient support. And, equally important, I also had no reason to lament in view of a lot of fantastic details that showed up. I am speaking, for instance, of the outstanding first riff of "Experiment in Terror" or the morbid opening of the quasi title track "At the Root of Evil". The threatening atmosphere of this tune, especially during its mid-tempo parts, was fascinating. If you want to make a horror movie, this song could be your soundtrack.

The tracks were ennobled by an archetypical thrash sound. Sharp and dominant guitars characterised the songs as well as the different moods of Flegias. The truth, let me say without wishing to offend anyone, was that no other Italian band had been able to follow in the footsteps of Necrodeath during their absence. In view of this circumstance, their return was more than overdue. And it was good that they did not reappear in the original line-up. Their former singer did not fail to make a solid job. But the performance of Flegias marked the difference. It is not a hollow phrase that Necrodeath were stronger than ever before.

After a 10 year hiatus, Italian thrash/death cultists Necrodeath were to return with a new record, and Mater of All Evil was the result, an energetic succubus lashing which took the morbid visions of their past and dialed everything well past the volume limit. This album is vile, with vocals dripping more hatred than a busload of mid 80s Kreator vinyls. And that would be the major influence for this band, Mille's brand of eviscerating snarl which sounds like it is choking on the blood of its latest victim. There are also some deeper grunting vocals that serve as a diabolical, well-placed counterpart.

Necrodeath was obviously not expecting anyone to survive this album, so the focus is more on completely destroying the listener rather than writing complex or entirely memorable melodies. The first two tracks are "The Creature" and "Flame of Malignance", and it feels like getting a pitchfork to the face multiple times, collapsing to the ground only to be trampled by the mobile infantry of the Abyss. "Black Soul" slows things down for a while...with some tasty acoustics...but these are not to last, as even this song transforms into a fistful of scorn that repeatedly batters you on the bridge of your nose. Tracks like "Hatred and Scorn" and "Serpent" provide you with more relentless havoc, but the album does thankfully pace itself out with some variation: the slower thrashing "Void of Naxir" and the moving, atmospheric "At the Roots of Evil" with some Slayer-ific melodies.

This is possibly the best thrashing Necrodeath has ever given through its career. Some might adhere to the classic tones of Into the Macabre, but really this is a bulldozer of an album worthy of even Bulldozer (the other creme of the Italian thrash crop). A swarthy, expert production, blazing guitars, and venomous lyrical spit make it worthy of any fan of black occult thrash metal.

Highlights: Flame of Malignance, Serpent, Void of Naxir, Anticipation of Death

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Most of the people particularly fond of this album (and this band in general) appear to be Italian; I mean, I understand rooting for your hometown heroes and everything, but I don't see the charm here at all. I kind of understand where the fans are coming from; Necrodeath was a late '80s group and ostensibly one of the more formational bands in the Italian extreme metal scene, and this is the band's first album after a decade-long absence, but frankly 'Mater Of All Evil' just isn't very good. It's capable and listenable enough but completely unmemorable and generic at the same time. This is exactly the sort of album that I can't bring myself to hate but at the same time will probably listen to twice more after this review is done. In other words, it's exactly the sort of thing that should be on Pavement.

This is a death metal album that is really only super overdriven thrash metal; influences from old Death and Possessed are present along with a little updating in the form of some more melodic passages reminiscent of the old Swedish scene with modern playing technique and production. The screeching, throaty vocals and somewhat thin, trebly guitar tone give a mild black metal touch to the proceedings, but in essence this is a pure death/thrash album that seems roughly untouched from the sound established by the band in the '80s. I'm sure this is a ringing endorsement for some, but merely being oldschool has never been enough to keep my attention. To the band's credit, the songs are fairly complex, with a lot of riffs and different melodic and rhythmic ideas going into each, but the trouble is that none of them are very good and most of the tracks here sound like they were written in a few hours despite their latent complexity.

There's a lot of small things to criticize; the kind of arrhythmic, silly vocal performance which has too much thrash yowl to be taken seriously, the kind of repetitious and overly traditional riffs, and the kind of weird, overly echoey drum production, but none of this cuts to the core of why this is a weak album. 'Mater Of All Evil' isn't a release crippled by a fundamental lack of songwriting talent, instrumental incompetence, or a single element that overtakes the rest of the music, but just a rather plain variety of mediocrity. I'm perhaps not the best person to be reviewing such an album, but really, do even dedicated and single-minded oldschool death metal fans find this very engaging? I've heard all these ideas before, expressed in better and more ambitious ways, so why would I listen to this, even for nostalgia or bread-and-butter listening? There's just too much out there.

I suppose I could be missing something fundamental about this release but I don't think I do; this is rather designed for those who are just looking for oldschool death metal than anything particularly unique or engaging. I suppose if you have a 'Scream Bloody Gore' shirt somewhere in your closet you'll enjoy this, but as someone without that garment, I have to give this a pass.

After 10 years, here we have Necrodeath again!! The band split-up in 1990 after the very good album "Fragments Of Insanity" because of some problems with labels and loss of interest among the group's members.
Now they are back but with only two original members: Claudio (guitars) and Peso (drums). The new members are John (bass) and the great screamer Flegias ( former drummer of Opera IX ).

With this new masterpiece we go back to the group’s roots, to that masterpiece called “Into The Macabre”, because all the black/thrash atmosphere we can find in this album, comes directly from that black flame that started to burn in 1985.
Here we have less technical parts than in “Fragments Of Insanity” and more evil music, to create a big black monolith.

The new singer has a different style and he's a more screamed tonality than Ingo but anyway his voice is perfect for the pitch black atmosphere in this album. Talking about the work done by the two original members…well, nothing to say! Even Claudio’s riffs sound more original, with a great production. The drummer is always very fast, but extremely technical. Anyway, there are no grind parts, like in the debut.
This album is, anyway, total impact in songs like "Hate and Scorn", "The Creature" and "Serpent".
Sometimes, like in the past, the only melody is the one created by the guitars and we are not talking about happy melodies, but really obscure ones, to create a morbid, sick and gloomy sound.

Fast parts, with some slower and evil; screams alternated to growls and gloomy whispers from hell; evocative acoustic guitar parts like in "Fathers" song or in the great "At The Roots Of Evil"…that is Mater Of All Evil…oh, men! What a come back!

It contains also a re-recorded song from the legendary The Shining Pentagram demo, "Iconoclast".
Give them a chance, they deserve it.

Necrodeath was a cult band in 80's extreme metal scene. They proposed a thrash/death with a lot of influences by Slayer. Then they splitted-up.
During the 90's a large number of bands, such as Cannibal Corpse, Slayer, Children of Bodom, and so on, described Necrodeath as a great band in the europe scene and one of their favourite.
Conforted by this affermations, Necrodeath reformed in 2000, with a new bass player and a new vocalist: John and Flegias (ex-drummer of Opera IX and now also drummer of Cadaveria) respectivelly.
Flegias bringed the band a massive dose of black influences (cadaveria and opera IX are in fact black bands), and nowadays the band plays a good mix of Black/thrash and death metal.
Also live the band gives a great performance, and showes a great black and malefic attitude, helped in this by their thin and restless frontman.

Highlights - We start with THE CREATURE (great black/thrash metal assault), then we continue with FLAME OF MALIGNANCE (one of my favourites, terrific in the refrain : flame of malignance ...) followed by BLACK SOUL ( with a good melodic opening). Then ICONOCLAST, (surelly my favoured, perfect). A mention also for EXPERIMENT IN TERROR, and, AT THE ROOTS OF EVIL.

In the complex a great work, and if you don't want to buy this, at least give it a hearing; It will conquer you.