NECROMANCIA
Check Mate
(Mausoleum Records)
36:47min

NECROMANCIA from Brazil was founded in 1984 but they didn’t release much stuff: two tracks on a compilation in 1985, a single in 1994 and their debut album in 1997 which was highly influenced by bands like MAIDEN, BLACK SABBATH and MOTÖRHEAD according to my info sheet. Partly, this slow output speed is due to the members studying music. "Check Mate" is pretty much Thrash Metal, the dirty South American way with lots of balls and attitude but I have to highlight the outstanding melodic solos. These guys know what they’re doing. Soundwise, there are some parallels to SEPULTURA, probably because the album was produced by Andreas Kisser. The riffing on ‘Virus’ is pretty unusual for Brazilian Thrash though. Actually it’s almost "funky", maybe the band listened to DEATH ANGEL a little before writing the song. Still, the vibe of the song is totally NECROMANCIA. The next song, ‘The Blooding – Post War’ also demonstrates the stylistic range of the band’s Thrash philosophy: some old school uffta-uffta drumming first, then some modern groove, then some insane double bass action and finally a doomy part with excellent soloing. Furthermore, the song features Alex Camargo of KRISIUN doing some guest vocals. Great! "Check Mate" is mostly mid-paced, so if you’re only built for speed you’ll be missing an impressive album. I’m asking myself whether the ‘Overkill’ cover was necessary as nobody will ever reach the vibe of MOTÖRHEAD’s original but NECROMANCIA’s version rocks quite a bit as well. There’s a cool live clip of the song ‘Greed Up To Kill’ as well. Filmed at a small open air in pretty good (amateur) quality with numerous cameras and excellent (studio?) sound quality. Quite a bit going on in the mosh pit… I can absolutely recommend this CD to Thrash lunatics looking for quality. www.necromancia.com

Ramon Claassen

Ramon Claassen

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