Review 2556 : Necrodeath – Arimortis – English

Necrodeath bows out with a final album.

After a forty-year career, the Italian band led by drummer Peso (ex-Sadist) and accompanied by Flegias (vocals, Cadaveria, ex-Opera IX), Pier Gonella (guitar, Athlantis, Mastercastle, Perseo Miranda…) and GL (bass, Cadaveria) unveil Arimortis, their fourteenth and last album, on Time to Kill Records.

Storytellers of Lies kicks off at full speed, pouring out its razor-sharp riffs and vindictive screams, perfectly highlighted by the band’s Black/Thrash roots. The band’s Old School approach hasn’t aged a bit, just like the piercing leads also found on the massive New God, a more ominous composition that doesn’t neglect its rhythmics for all that. The atmosphere is quite different from that of the previous track, especially on the final break where it feels like you’re in a horror film, before Necrosadist captivates us with its introduction and finally strikes with its usual explosive touch. The frenetic riffing makes you want to rip your head off, especially on the final run to the mysterious Arimortis, where the tones are rather heavy despite the soaring harmonics the guitar delivers. Near-Death Experience follows with a fairly calm pace, but develops catchy tones and hypnotic vocal parts, returning to the roots of Black Metal and its intoxicating macabre tones, as on Alien, which adopts the same approach. The composition then becomes rather chaotic before giving way to No More Regrets where a touch of melancholy appears, before giving way again to rage and then blending the two in a fairly natural but tortured flow that leads us to Metempsychosis (part two). The track is obviously a direct reference to the title released on the 2019 album Defragments of Insanity, and is also quasi-instrumental (with the exception of the moment when voices chant its name), but it’s twice as long and reaches seven minutes where all the musicians go wild and show us just how good they are. The album closes with Hangover, where we again find ourselves trapped between fury and icy quietude, but the track ends with some rather… realistic vomiting.

And so ends the legend of Necrodeath, the Italian band that brings a forty-year career to a close. If the first albums are still considered their best, Arimortis remains very solid and makes them leave the scene with a very positive touch!

85/100

Version Française ?

A few questions to Gianluca “GL” Fontana, bass player for Italian band Necrodeath, about the band’s last studio record, Arimortis.

Hello and first of all, thank you very much for your time! How could you introduce the band Necrodeath without using the usual Metal genres, such as “Black Metal”, “Death Metal” or “Thrash Metal”?
Gianluca “GL” Fontana (bass): Hello and thank you for the support! So… if I had to summarize in a few words who Necrodeath are I would tell you that we are a band of 4 musicians who have been playing Extreme music for 40 years without ever compromising with the music business. What has kept us together all these years is the passion for extreme music and deep friendship as well as the support of the fans.

The band is now reaching its 40th anniversary, in addition to a year being named Ghostrider at the very beginning. Do you remember how you came to the name Necrodeath? Did you ever think the band’s career would last this long?
GL: Ghostrider was born in 1984 and in 1985 the band changed its name to Necrodeath, this was because they wanted to give a name that was more coherent with the music that was being created and that could be remembered. From 1985 until today the band has had several line up changes, but the matrix that characterizes our sound has never changed. None of us imagined we would have such a long career, in fact time has flown by for us! Now that we are stopping we are reaping the fruits of our career and we are satisfied with it.

The band just released its last album, Arimortis. How do you feel about it? Do you already have any feedback?
GL: Arimortis has just been released and we are receiving a lot of appreciation from the public. We are happy about this because we also play for the public as well as for ourselves, so knowing that they like our work is a great satisfaction. Arimortis represents Necrodeath‘s testament to future generations of metalheads, so it is the essence of what we are now and what we have been during these 40 years.

How would you sum Arimortis’ identity up in only three words?
GL: Passion, Energy, Consistency. Passion because that’s what has always united us as a band towards the musical genre we love. Energy is what we hope comes to those who listen to this album and all our works in general. Consistency is what we believe we have maintained over the years, always faithful to our way of conceiving our music.

How did the creation process happen for Arimortis? Were there any differences compared to the previous releases?
GL: As with the previous works, Arimortis was also born in a completely spontaneous way, as the past, from Peso‘s embryonic ideas which were then proposed to the band, rearranged and recorded without too many second thoughts. So I would say that Arimortis is a spontaneous album, made from the heart, composed, and recorded directly by us, without external interventions or influences, Arimortis it fully represents the essence of Necrodeath.

The band’s sound is of course anchored in its own roots between Black, Death and Thrash, but how did you create your own touch? Do you think there was an evolution with years?
GL: Certainly from the 80s to today many things have changed, we have grown both as musicians and as composers, so it is practically impossible to always remain identical to the past. However, what we wanted to keep unchanged is our trademark, which has characterized us throughout our career, which connects the work done in the 80s to the latest productions. I believe that the soul of the band has always remained the same and also the new line up, stable for 20 years, has kept the ideas and characteristics of the Necrodeath sound as faithful as possible.

Do you have a favorite song on this album? Or maybe the hardest one to achieve for the album.
GL: It’s difficult to choose, but one of my favorites is definitely Storytellers of Lies because it’s a song that vents our anger towards the music business and that has a crazy energy live. Instead, a song that was complex to create is Metempsychosis (part two) due to the technical complexity of the composition, so I don’t think we’ll ever play it live.

Where do you find your inspiration to create music? Is there a concept on Arimortis?
GL: There was no planning behind Arimortis. It’s not a concept album, but it wants to be a snapshot of what Necrodeath are now and have been in these 40 years. So we like to think that it is a sort of testament to the band and that it will make us remember as a band consistent with its musical path.

Do you think you improved yourself as a musician and songwriter with this new record?
GL: As I said before we are certainly not the same kids as 20 or 40 years ago… it would be unthinkable to always remain identical. We have grown as musicians and had experiences that inevitably lead you to change, so all this is also reflected in our music.

Arimortis is stated as the band’s very last studio record. Why and how did you come up with this decision?
GL: For several years we had wanted to end our career in style and with full strength. We don’t want to leave a bad memory for those who have always followed and supported us, so the best way is to end with one last album and one last tour, now that we are still able to stand up! Eheheh.

What can you tell me about the artwork? Were there any guidelines?
GL: The album cover symbolizes a warrior at the end of a battle intent on washing blood-soaked clothes and healing from his wounds. We associate this image with our battles faced in all these years to stay afloat in the musical underground, as well as being a real photograph without filters or artifices, a bit like us.

Arimortis is released with the cooperation of label Time to Kill Records, how is the collaboration? How did you announce them your decision to quit after this?
GL: Time To Kill Recordb published our last two works and we worked well with them, because fortunately they kept the agreements made. When we talked about the new album we announced it as the latest work. While this was shocking for both us and them, the reasons that led us to this decision were shared, so we all worked to leave a good memory for the fans.

The band of course played some shows around Europe, do you consider playing more to celebrate the band’s career? In a general way, how do you get prepared to play on stage?
GL: Throughout 2025 we will do a series of concerts throughout Italy and parts of Europe. We are still planning the latest availability and fortunately we have received many proposals. For the live shows we prepare by focusing on the show but above all by having fun both on stage and off stage in contact with the audience. It’s the last round of goodbyes, so we invite you to participate in our live shows, because in 2026, Necrodeath will no longer exist.

What will happen in the next months for Necrodeath? What about all the musicians, after the band’s official end?
GL: In the next few months we will be around to do concerts and thank the public who have always supported us. We will bring with us the latest merchandise and all the albums produced, after which nothing will be produced by the band anymore and we will each retire with our own lives, even if the friendship and bond between us will never end. Some of us will continue to play in other projects, but I will definitely stop playing, for me the chapter is closed.

Are there any musicians or artists you would still like to collaborate with? Whether it is for one song, or maybe more.
GL: At the end of the career the games are over! Maybe in the past we would have had the pleasure of being able to collaborate with other artists or bands besides those we worked with. We have always remained an underground band, so our collaborations have always stopped at this level, even if some famous names elevate us as a cult band and this can only please us.

What do you know about the French Metal scene? Are there any bands you know and like? Do you plan to come to France before the end?
GL: I believe that the French metal scene is very rich like the Italian one, we have often played with really good French bands (like for example Gojira at Rock the Castle 2019). We hope to return to France for a final farewell, we have many fans over there… I remember some of them even had a tattoo of us!

If you had to organize a concert for Arimortis release show, which bands would you love to play with? I let you create a poster with Necrodeath and three other bands! Even unrealistic answers are accepted.
GL: Well… an impossible but absolutely fantastic concert for us could be: Slayer + Venom + Necrodeath, because they were the bands that influenced the birth of Necrodeath and without which perhaps we would never have existed. Luckily we had the honor of playing together with Slayer on two occasions and collaborated with Cronos for the intro of our album 100% Hell, but one last live like that would be really amazing! Eheheh.

Last and funny question: which dish would you compare Necrodeath’s music with?
GL: I would say « Trofie al pesto » a typical Genoese dish. Because the base of Necrodeath comes from Liguria and, even if it seems like a simple dish, it is not easy to find the right ingredients and know how to dose them well. So it’s a dish that we can very well compare to us as a band, simple guys who have always blended well with each other, enhancing the characteristics of the band.

That was the last question for me, so thank you very much for your time and your music for all those years, last words are yours!
GL: Thanks to you and the readers of Acta Infernalis for the support! We invite you to listen to our latest work Arimortis and if possible to participate in our farewell tour. Necrodeath will definitively close all activities at the end of 2025, so we are waiting for you to say goodbye and listen to some music together. Thank you all for the support you have given us over all these years, we hope to leave you with a good memory and we are sure that our music will remain over time!

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