Review by Felix on February 27, 2023.

There are two things I don’t like when it comes to Necrodeath. I mean their inactive period from 1989 to 2000 and the failed, more or less experimental Draculea. But everything else related to the Italian legend is simply great and Singin’ In The Pain prolongs the series of strong releases. Well, the lyrical concept is truly not new. It refers to "Clockwork Orange", a book that doesn't interest me at all and has already been chewed over by a well-known German wannabe punk band. The spoken intros, contributed by the Venom Inc. clown Tony Dolan, are also dispensable. Anyway, let’s speak about the musical content.

Necrodeath dish up their evergreen mix of sharp riffs, expressive shouts and well-proportioned melodic ingredients. Only the percussive elements that were pretty present on the previous albums do not reappear. The band is able to create a sometimes brutal, sometimes cold and sometimes morbid atmosphere. Tempo shifts are an important factor in order to increase the dynamic of the tracks, but progressive sing structures do not occur. The Italians put the song and its coherence in the centre of their efforts, not the demonstration of their technical skills as as end in itself. Catchy parts show up, but they arise organically – it’s not that the quartet was looking for a song that makes a kowtow to the listening habits of the mainstream.

Of course this does not mean that Singin’ In The Pain lacks highlights. The opener delivers the first one. 'Gang Fight' offers explosive outbursts of brutality, comparatively calm, gloomy sequences, alarming guitar sounds and a simple chorus which is based on an adamant riffing. The muscular 'Transformer Treatment' scores with compactness and homogeneity and fantastic guitar leads, while the first part of 'The Sweet Up And Down' sneaks insidiously around dark corners. The song also houses an outbreak of velocity and its very atmospheric ending with an almost oriental touch rounds off the song perfectly. The remaining six songs achieve the same level of quality and are actually worth an individual description as well, but the first third of the album allows a representative insight into the musical content of the Italian’s tenth long-player since their comeback (I do not count Defragments Of Insanity in this context.)

No matter from which angle you look at Singin’ In The Pain, the release does not show weak points. Flegias still masters the expression of thousand dark emotions with great ease, the solos make sense and serve the songs, the degree of brutality is pretty perfect and the technical implementation is also great. It’s a typical Necrodeath production: clear, vital, precise, powerful and direct. This and the fact that the thrashing institution did not modify its song-writing approach makes me happy. Necrodeath accompany me now for more than 30 years and I hope that a piece of the common path still lies ahead of us. But even if not: the here reviewed album holds nine very cool and very authentic songs. It is simply great from the beginning to the end. I just do not know why the artwork with the four dancing Redeemers was censored.

Rating: 8.7 out of 10