Screams

The problem was that few fans out there cared about those screams at the time when they were unleashed, not by an underground German thrash metal act anyway. Cause regardless of how much the guys toiled behind the Holy Three in their homeland, having even managed to go over the standard double on the official release stage, not that many were those who genuinely cared about their exploits. The band by all means had their fans even those who came onboard after the sloppy messy debut, but the upper echelon continued to be elusive for the guys even after the excellent "Escalation", a very appropriately-titled opus that should have been the breakthrough instalment.

The thing is that the guys literally dropped off the face of the earth afterwards, one of the early disappearances from the field even before the invasion of the numetal trends. Again, not many were those who would have gone the extra mile to delve deeper into the reasons for that, and not many were those to jump around jubilant at the band’s re-emergence with the album reviewed here. An early comeback opus this could be labelled although the band had never officially split up; they had just taken a prolonged break in order to re-evaluate their next “escalation” step, and with view of the metamorphoses the scene started experiencing in the early-90’s, this re-evaluation period took sizeable proportions.

It’s good that at least said period didn’t convert the band into most devoted groove/aggro/industrial followers as the album reviewed here is a pretty decent slab of the good old school thrash only spiced with more melodic variations. The guys’ passion for moshing out with reckless abandon is nicely reflected in furious blitzkriegers like "Final Course" and "Irreversible Destruction", and even on the more complex material like the diverse shape-shifter "Just Say No" the hard-hitting rifforamas reign supreme. However, this opus has its mellower, friendlier side reflected in a couple of interesting power/speed/thrash hybriders (“Second Birth”, “How Long You Think”) those boldly bordering on the progressive, also quite reminiscent of the approach on Schmier’s Headhunter. "Bitter Sweet Perversion" is a laid-back heavy/power metal anthem, the only more mitigated pullback, the other candidate for this prize, the ballad "Ruins (They Will Cry Tomorrow)" saved by the excellent attached vocals of Fredrich who displays an unexpected vocal bravado rarely heard on a speed/thrash metal recording. The middle seems to deliver the best, though, with the quite convincing technical chopper “Temptation” and the energetic crossover delight “Crushing Defeat”, both not very expected supplies, but adding to the varied charm of the album. The same can only partially be said about “Groovy Mouth”, however, this one justifying the “groove” part of its title with heavy thick grooves breaking the vigorous thrash façade.

Quite a bit has been inserted here, the band obviously throwing all ideas they had around that time into the furnace, the final result not bad, especially by the very lowered mid-90’s standards. A tribute to the faded retro sound with very vague winks at the ruling vogues, it sticks somewhat awkwardly in the band’s discography, the obligatory recording of the 90’s, not as divisive as other efforts released at the time, but not much more than the product of the guys’ more or less voluntary decision to cross the decade off the list with an official instalment.

It turned out later that this album was not just that, especially when it threw its shadow over the guys’ subsequent exploits. Save for the no-bars-held thrashterpiece “Construction of Evil” every other showing has been based on a similar, at times plain larger-than-life, combination the band spicing their rigorous thrash delivery with quite a few “side-effects” from other genres, with "Pathfinder... Between Heaven and Hell" going over the top by assigning thrash as a mere assistant, giving power and speed metal a lot of freedom to trample all over. Classic metal defenders, what do you expect… ready to sacrifice their bite and aggressive demeanour for other old school appearances. Screams of delirious fans would hardly reach the guys’ ears, but at the same time few would be those who will bypass their output with a spiteful frown.

It took Necronomicon a few efforts in the 80s to finally score, with their third album Escalation, and thus it felt rather anticlimactic that they dropped off the face of the Earth for six years after that. But in 1994, they finally pulled their shit together to produce Screams, a work which sees a leap forward in studio standards, if not really a leap forward in quality. This is still a sound close to Destruction, thanks largely to the riffs and vocals of Volker Fredrich, with that same nasally aggression as Schmier, but I'd daresay that the variety in the writing here better parallels the work of his Headhunter, who infused more melody and traditional heavy metal influence into the thrashing base, and were in the midst of doing so when Screams was released.

The band had grabbed a new bassist by this point, another in a very long line of bassists (which might help explain their inconsistency in putting out albums), Bernhard Matt, but otherwise they remain the same. "Final Course", "Temptation", "Irreversible Destruction" (don't laugh), and the oddly titled "Groovy Mouth" all sound very similar to what Destruction were writing around the mid to late 80s, though the guitars are a little more blunt than Sifringer riffs, and the band uses more gang shouting alongside Volker. None are very good, but none are badly written for that matter. Where the album grows slightly in quality is where it takes you by surprise, like the moody, rising heavy metal ballad "Bitter Sweet Perversion", or the pure ballad "Ruins (They Will Cry Tomorrow"), both of which are fairly memorable, despite the more emotional vocals, the latter sounding not unlike a Scorpions piece.

The band had still come a ways since their s/t Necromonicon in 1986, but Screams is hardly a phoenix rising from the ashes. Few of the songs here are as catchy as those on Escalation, and the album seems strangely out of place in time, but this is due to the huge gulfs of time both preceding and following its release (they won't release Construction of Evil for a decade after this) which make it a curiosity. However, I'll give the German band some credit. They could have reassembled and changed their style to groove/thrash like most of the hideous bands of the day, trying to reinvent themselves, but they did no such thing. Sure, Necronomicon is derivative of another better known band, but they at least play some decent music, and the duration of their career despite a breakout success reeks of authenticity. But if it's your first exposure to their charnel charms, you're better served by Escalation or even Apocalyptic Nightmare.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com