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Age of Fear is a compilation by Italian thrash/death posse Necrodeath – spawned in the underground in 1985, it’s one of the earliest examples of extreme metal in Southern (read: Catholic) Europe, thus their cult is just about as strong as that of Cthulhu, though a lot less secretive

In spite of a long period of inactivity between ’89 and ’98, Necrodeath has visited a lot of different places musically speaking. From almost Metallica-like pure thrash to raw, grinding, oldschool death, they rule most of it with a natural ease. They even made a melodic heavy piece, in the veins of early King Diamond – ”Queen of Desire” – that figures on Age of Fear in two different incarnations: the original that kick ass and a new version that actually kick even more ass! The new version ads a piano and the female voice of Giorgia Gueglio of Mastercastle, and proves at least one point: That Giorgia should disband her crappy power/goth/metalcore ensemble and start making music for grownups on a more regular basis.

Age of Fear also has a few other goodies for the collectors, such as a fairly well done cover version of Slayers ”Black Magic” (though they don’t really ad anything to the song) and a live version of one of Necrodeath’s classics ”The Theory”. I guess that if you don’t know Necrodeath already this album would really be the perfect way to start your aquiantedness – they’ve managed to select just the right songs from a catalogue of 26 years.

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