Band:	Necrodeath
Album:	Old Skull
Style:	Blackened thrash metal
Release date:	February 2010

01. Mater Tenebrarum [2010 version]
02. Black Magic [Slayer cover]
03. Raise The Dead [Bathory cover]
04. Pleasure To Kill [Kreator cover]
05. Paranoid [Black Sabbath cover]
06. Sodomy And Lust [Sodom cover]
07. Bloodlust [Venom cover]
08. Ace Of Spades [Motörhead cover]
09. Am I Evil? [Diamond Head cover]
10. Mater Tenebrarum [1985 version]

Black Thrash metal
Recorded: Quake Sound Studios, Italy 2009
Label: Scarlet Records
Total Running Time: 38:04


Good news everyone! Necrodeath are celebrating their 25 years of existence as a band!!! Hooray for exclamation points! With the idea of throwing an evil birthday party in style, the band is releasing their own version of Graveyard Classics so to say. Never afraid of extremities or a blasphemous image, this 25th anniversary album kinda looks like one big ice cream party hosted by Satan himself. And all the devil's minions are there: Slayer, Venom, Black Sabbath, Sodom, you name it.

Which automatically brings me to the relatively safe choice of cover songs. A couple of them classic tunes are already covered one too many times by now. But hey, it's their party, and this reviewer's already glad he's invited. So take another drink and enjoy the injection of the typical Necrodeath magic. Because, yes, Necrodeath did transform these timeless anthems into hits of terror and wanton destruction. It's like putting in your contacts after dipping them into hot chocolate sauce; sweet though brutally uncalled for. It's not really called butchering, but it's still pretty sick what they did here. Blood splatters included.

Granted, blackened thrash is not an ever-changing genre - heck, it's often a tiring genre that wears off very rapidly - but Necrodeath still are a real stand out act in this niche. The least you could say about Necrodeath is that you perfectly know what you're in for. And that is muscular, dirty, violent thrash, bursting with vitality and crunching energy, with those distinctive voca... well, harsh shrieks, the band is so renowned for.

(For information's sake I have to add the album features a shitload of guest musicians, both ex-Necrodeath members, as members of Schizo and Bulldozer - who are, together with Necrodeath, considered to be blackened thrash metal pioneers in Italy. Now you know.)

Believe it or not, Necrodeath are still very successful at what they do. Regardless of the familiarity of the songs, the band still plays the same old-fashioned harsh metal they always have, albeit a tad more refined. Brutal yet entertaining is what Old Skull is, like being in the middle of a bar fight in downtown Glasgow... or something.