ALBUM REVIEW: UNUS – Necronomicon

Qubec’s NECRONOMICON are one of Canada’s longest serving extreme metal institutions, having been plying their blackened death metal wares since 1988. In the mid 00s, the trio, led by sole remaining original member Rob “The Witch” Tremblay, took a seven year break between albums before releasing a somewhat disappointing comeback, The Return of the Witch. However, Tremblay came back with a vengeance, releasing two of his best offerings to date in 2013 and 2016 – Rise of the Elder Ones and Advent of the Human God (read our review here), respectively. Back once more with their sixth full length, UNUS, do NECRONOMICON keep the momentum rising, or is this where the band fall off?

Album opener From Ashes Into The Flesh wastes little time in dropping a DIMMU BORGIR influenced style of symphonic black metal, mixed with a healthy dose of brutality from the death metal elements of the band’s sound. At times, Tremnlay leans a little too hard into the DIMMU influence, adopting a nasal, Shagrath-esque tone in his voice that feels forced – fortunately, this is short lived, and he his back delivering his guttural roar in no time. For the many strengths of UNUS‘ opener, the hard DIMMU BORGIR influence gives the album a bit of a confused start, unfortunately.

Infinituum Continuum gets things back on track, however. Utterly furious in its delivery, the symphonic elements act as a more subtle boost to the grandiose element of NECRONOMICON‘s sound, rather than overpowering the brutality. The solo work, in particular, is a lovely touch that brings a nice dose of melodic shred into the fray, before hook-heavy riffing leads us into Paradise Lost – an utterly devastating dose of blackened ferocity. The Price Of A Soul serves as a haunting interlude before stand out track Singular Dominus drives UNUS into Side B with a brutalising sense of urgency.

Kicking off the second half of UNUS, The Thousand Masks stands as one of the strongest moments on the entirety of the album. Starting with some nice Eastern scales before transitioning into hook-heavy blackened death metal in all its crushing glory, the symphonic elements throughout work in perfect unison bringing a strong memorability. An easy highlight from UNUS. Keeping the quality high, Ascending The Throne of Baator brings an uneasy, blackened doom edge to proceedings, crafting an ethereal sound. A stark contrast to The Thousand Masks, but equally as strong.

Another haunting interlude in the form of Fhtagn leads the listener into the closing moments of UNUS with penultimate Cursed MMXIX. An recharged version of the closing track from their 1992 demo Morbid Ritual, it is an absolutely crushing in its blackened-speed-metal-meets-death-metal approach, Cursed MMXIX is one of the most aggressive offerings NECRONOMICON have put to tape, driving at blitzkrieg pace towards album closer Vox Draconis. Maintaining the speed and energy of Cursed MMXIX until its dying moments, Vox Draconis is an eviscerating blast to end the album on. Switching between high-octane riffing and a more devastating, monolithic delivery with ease, UNUS closes in strong fashion.

So, does NECRONOMICON keep the momentum rising with UNUS? Unfortunately not. However to suggest that this is where the band are set to fall off would be grossly unfair – at its most spectacular, UNUS is every bit as strong as the band’s magnum opus, Advent of the Human God. It just doesn’t stay at that height for long. The entire second half is NECRONOMICON at their strongest, but a lacklustre start halts the momentum in its tracks. A solid offering from the Qubec outfit, but not their strongest to date.

Rating: 7/10

UNUS is set for release October 18th via Season Of Mist. 

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