Armageddon
Necromantic Celebration

The first thing that springs to mind about this band is the fact that it shares the name with boring Hollywood action movie Armageddon, although the cast is slightly smaller with this Armageddon, actually it is a one man cast which is somewhat smaller than the one of the movie. This is the second album of this guy who is a frenchman with experience from many different bands and is apparently part of the band Unholy War at the moment, but considering this is the second album of Armageddon should not be seen as a sign of a sequel to the tired Hollywood movie as they are not linked in any other way than the name. Necromantic Celebration is not to be seen as a celebration of the self sacrifice of Bruce Willis’ hero in the movie but judging from the cover art it might be some kind of ceremonial thing at least. This frenchman also has a rather good logo for his one man band so just looking at it it looks very interesting.

Blackened thrash metal is the talk of the town for this band, and I think it is a good description as it is thrash metal in roots but with some touches of black metal and very powerful heavy thrash metal touches with a very raw, near brutal sound. The sound is very rough and also kind of old sound, in a sense it is a bit like a powerful drilling platform making way towards the innards of the planet. I would say that it is one bad ass record in terms of the aggression and the power of it, and even though it may seem like only aggression and brutality there is much more to this album than might meet the eye at first glance. There are ten tracks on this album of which nine are Armageddon composition while the final one is a cover, a Running Wild cover to be precise. The playing time of this album is about 47 minutes and the variation during these is bigger than it might seem when hearing the album for the first time.

So is it any good then? Well, at first I didn’t think so, I found it too harsh and messy and also actually a bit boring. Moreover this aggressive style of thrash just felt like it didn’t work well at all for me so I was a bit thinking low at first. But after listening to it for a few times patterns starts to emerge and things that hasn’t made sense before starts doing so and all of a sudden I get this album and all of a sudden I find it being a good album. It is a powerful and aggressive and sort of brutal well made album which I find quite exciting and also quite entertaining to listen to, sure it is not fantastic but then again I have not really ever been a fan of brutal thrash metal so that might explain that part as reviews I have found around the web speaks in very positive tongues about this album.

Heavy and raw like an unboiled elephant is what it is, and a very good musical piece that will probably appeal to most fans of thrash metal, especially if you are into the darker thrash metal bands that are available out there. I like this album, it is a fun piece to listen to and I think it is one well worth giving a chance, especially if you like blackened thrash metal.