The last time I covered Necronomicon, it was the tail end of 2015 and I opened up my piece on their album with a classic Army of Darkness reference. This time I thought about it but eventually decided against it, so let’s get on with it shall we?

In the six years which have passed since I last listened to Necronomicon, the band released their 9th full length release (‘Unleashed Bastards’) which I didn’t even realise had happened and now they are on their 10th full length album and 6th since their hiatus ended in 2004. With a title named “The Final Chapter”, you’d assume this was either the end to some musical story or saga in terms of songs or even a farewell album but nothing in the press release indicated this as a farewell album (instead it was the usual over-hyped buzzword text everyone gets) so it just seems like the band was going for a bit of a dramatic or impactful title which is kind of fitting when you take into account what the album starts off like.

“I Am The Violence” is a stale effort as an opening track and it immediately lowers the expectations for this release. A generic Teutonic thrash style riff hits you and whilst the guitars do have a great tone to them, the rest of the track isn’t much to pay attention to – severely lacking in both lyrical content and vocal delivery, the cringe inducing pronunciation present in the chorus overshadows a lot of what goes on in the track and when you listen to the track, this chorus section seems to pop up a lot!

This seems to set the tone for the rest of the release sadly; generic Teutonic thrash/Euro Metal style riffs and rhythmic patterns topped with some fairly predictable leads, melodic licks and the overwhelming feel of mediocrity which, for a band who have been around for almost 40 years (though 10 of those were spent on hiatus) there isn’t much else to say about the album really, and that is a touch worrying! Sure, I could pad this out by going on about how their contemporaries in Sodom, Destruction and Kreator have all shot to fame and enjoyed legendary status whilst Necronomicon have cult status instead, how the band have had a few roadblocks in their way but kept on going and how despite me finding little in terms of viable content to write about musically on this release, the band has been extremely consistent and the one good thing is the synergy between the guitar and bass when it comes to the solid sound the band has on this release: It’s thick, it’s heavy and it has some force behind it.

If this is a farewell album, the “The Final Chapter” is just a case of ‘no more, more of the same’. It was pretty familiar sounding and feeling to the previous release of theirs which I covered and it didn’t leave me feeling impressed or having something to take away from it other than good tone but a rather bland listening experience. It lacks a spark or something in the compositions of each track which can really catch the attention or draw more interest for a listener, and this loops back to the question of is this a farewell release? – Perhaps, after nearly 40 years the guys have simply had enough and lost their drive to make music under the Necronomicon banner/completely? Only the band can tell us this.

What I can tell you though, is that this wasn’t memorable in the slightest.

(4/10 Fraggle)

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