Necropolis

How I awaited this album to come… with trepidation bigger than the joint one of twelve virgin brides on their first wedding night. Well, I’m not quite sure how disappointed those brides could possibly be, provided that this is their first night and they have no prior experience to compared it with, but in my case I had three whole albums before that one to hold on to; two masterpieces and one decent transmogrifier…

naturally, I secretly hoped that Randy Meinhard would bypass the transmogrifier and would dive heads-over-heels into the gorgeousness of his first two creations. Yeah, sure thing, but not when you’re in the grip of this nefarious Necropolis, and not when you have to trust an entirely new line-up to pull it through; one that features no magicians of the ranks of the man’s ex-partners in crime, the gifted axemen Michael Kock and Michael Cerrone (check out Imperium’s only stint for the latter’s subsequent exploits).

Alas, without those wizards’ contribution the man can’t even think about showing us again what the truth is or going into any more recesses… even the “Tragic Intense” metamorphosis seems like the better option to this newly acquired brand of modern dark progressive power/post-thrash metal which comes with clean emotional vocals on top of everything, ones that would have never fitted into the earlier much more aggressive layouts.

On third listen, however, I start swaying my head here and there, but never in firm appreciation at what I hear; it’s just that this approach has some kind of charm, after all, as apparently Meinhard and his new comrades have taken this new trend seriously and have made every composition a lengthy complex listening experience; only that the description “plodding” comes to mind more than just now and then with the opening “The New Age of Fear” generating the biggest number of diatribes naturally, being the first cut and all. Truth be told, this more elaborate outtake from The Black Album is not such a deplorable snoozefest, but when you have another six compositions following exactly the same formula, the whole saga closing on nearly an hour, it’s hard for the audience to be perennially entertained, neither by leisurely nostalgic ballads like “My Last White Light” nor by one-dimensional near-doomy listening experiences like “The Pain Still Lasts” on which at least the James Hetfield-inspired vocalist acquits himself with a few passionate, noteworthy tirades.

Yes, some pain will last here, way after this album is over although the listener will savour the only more dynamic exercise at actual thrash “The Grim Sleeper”, nothing exuberantly stylish by any means but boisterous and bouncy enough to make one move around including with a portion of urgent heroic gallops. As this number comes third in order of the Sun the fans will be hoping to hear another similar display of thrashing energy later, but the dark hypnotic snare takes full control over the proceedings letting a pinch of livelier, more entangled riff-patterns sneak through on the supposed title-track “Necro Police” where just when one swears that this particular motif could lead all the way back to “Recesses…” with a bigger stretch of the imagination, starts another passage of dark morose post-thrashiness to stifle any such momentary looks back at the band’s roots.

It’s difficult to pretend that this album is more than just a decent showing; I’m not quite sure how much fun Meinhard and Co. themselves have had during the recording sessions; there’s this dense pessimistic vibe wrapping everything, an introspective mood which was missing from “Tragic Intense” even. Said vibe could clearly be felt on “Recesses” as well, but the more aggressive, more technical approach on that one was stretching it left and right, barely giving it a moment of respite thus not allowing it to turn the music setting into a still life-like canvas. Here the atmosphere swings stiffly from depressive to melancholic and vice versa the musicians following these swings obediently, seldom voting to disrupt them with the odd more dynamic stroke. If the guys’ agenda was to lure the listener into semi-deep hypnosis and make them rock to and fro in unison then I guess this could be considered mission partly accomplished; but there will hardly be any old band fans in the hypnotized audience; those have already seen the truth and have gone through all kinds of recesses to fall for that.

If Meinhard decides to continue in the same Black Album-inspired direction then I’d still like to wish him the best of luck. Who knows, maybe he can fabricate a similar multi-million seller some time in the future, mysterious are the gods’ ways. Whichever way he decides to swing he can rest assured that we, the band’s old devoted fans, will always gladly check every new product of his, hoping that the meanderings around the metal spectre have come full circle, and that the time has come for the man to go back home where the truth will set him free once again.