Necromandus
| Necromandus | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| origin | Cumberland , England |
| Genre (s) | Progressive rock , hard rock |
| founding | 1968, 2015 |
| resolution | 1973 |
| Website | http://www.necromandusmusic.com/ |
| Current occupation | |
| John Branch | |
| Frank Hall | |
| Dean Newton | |
| John Marcangelo | |
| Banjo Cunanan | |
| former members | |
singing |
Bill Branch († late 1980s) |
Electric guitar |
Barry "Baz" Dunnery († 2008) |
Electric bass |
Dennis McCarten († 2004) |
Necromandus is an English progressive and hard rock band from County Cumberland that was founded in 1968, split up in 1973 and has been active again since 2015.
history
The founding of the band goes back to 1968 and the break-up of the two groups Jug and Heaven from western Cumbria . The Necromandus line-up consisted of former youth members Barry "Baz" Dunnery (electric guitar) and Bill Branch (vocals) and former Heaven members Dennis McCarten (electric bass) and Frank Hall (drums). Initially the band went through a number of name changes, some of which were Heavy Hand, Urinal, Hot Spring Water, and Taurus, before choosing Necromandus. The name Necromandus was found on a radio broadcast asking the audience for the most appropriate name. The suggestion had previously been made by drummer Frank Hall, who had subconsciously mixed up the words " Nostradamus " and "Necromancer" ( necromancer ). Heaven was able to make friends with Earth, the later Black Sabbath , after a performance in the Towbar Club in Nethertown and Necromandus could also appear several times with Black Sabbath. As a result, both bands became friends with each other and Tony Iommi agreed to become manager of Necromandus. Iommi and the drummer Frank Hall had met before in 1968, when Iommi had performed with his band Mythology and Hall had attended the concert as a spectator. In 1972 the group relocated to Birmingham , whereupon they increasingly held appearances there. Later that year, recording took place at Zella Studios in Edgbaston , which resulted in the Iommi-produced single Judy Green Rocket . In February 1973 , the then untitled debut album was recorded at Morgan Studios in London , again with Iommi as producer. Iommi also contributed a few electric guitar passages for the theme song. Iommi chose Vertigo Records as the label , as several Black Sabbath albums had already been released on it. In the spring, the band played gigs with Thin Lizzy and Trapeze and also toured with Judas Priest . After the album was completed, the band took part in a Black Sabbath tour of Great Britain . This was followed by her own tour, during which her appearance in the casino in Blackpool was recorded privately and only 32 years later was published publicly as a 2005 live album Live . The band also played with Badger . In August 1973 the band took part in the Kendal Rock Festival . The band also performed in the Whitehaven Civic Hall in front of around 800 spectators. Since Black Sabbath was very active in the USA at that time , Iommi could no longer take care of Necromandus, so that the album release planned for March 1973 was delayed. Towards the end of the year Dunnery left the line-up, whereupon Vertigo Records decided not to release the album at all. It only appeared in 1999 under the title Orexis of Death and was re-released in 2005 under the name extension Orexis of Death Plus ... with two bonus songs. The song titles of these releases differ from those originally intended by the band members. In 2010 it was re-released again, this time with the live album as a bonus. In 2005, the sound carrier Necrothology was released , which contains alternative versions of the songs on the album and a live song. After a performance at Slypt Disc in Workington , the band broke up.
After the breakup, the three members teamed up with Ozzy Osbourne to help him out with rehearsals for his solo debut album Blizzard of Ozz . Bill Branch, Dennis McCarten and Barry Dunnery have since passed away.
In the summer of 2015, John Marcangelo came across old recordings that he had made with Barry Dunnery in 1975. Based on these recordings, Marcangelo worked on new songs. He was helped by the original drummer Frank Hall, the guitarist Dean Newton, the bassist Banjo Cunanan and the singer John Branch, son of the original singer. Marcangelo himself played the keyboard. For the upcoming album, three songs from the debut album were re-recorded and eight new songs were recorded. The result appeared self-titled in 2017 on the band's own label Mandus Music.
style
Atavachron of progarchives.com wrote that the tape from the magazine Melody Maker as Black Sabbath, the Greatest Hits of Yes were playing was designated. Allmusic's Eduardo Rivadavia stated that Necromandus is a proto- metal band whose music was then known as progressive blues . In his review of Orexis of Death & Live by Walter von Metal.de , he also drew a comparison with Black Sabbath. The group work hard and psychedelic as well as art and progressive rock elements into the music. In an interview with Matthias Mader from Rock Hard , Frank Hall stated that he and Barry "Baz" Dunnery were big jazz fans at the time and that he was less of a fan of heavy metal . The group comes more from the progressive rock direction, so that he finds the term "Heavy Progressive Rock" appropriate. Despite their name, the band has nothing to do with topics such as occultism or black magic . Rather, Bill Branch wrote about topics from his everyday life. Since the band comes from a rather rural area, one can also recognize a nature-relatedness in the lyrics. According to Mader, Necromandus, like Orexis of Death, oscillates between progressive, jazz , folk and hard rock . A few issues later, Mader reviewed the self-titled album and noted that John Branch's vocals are very reminiscent of his father's. The music is varied and authentic and at times sounds like a rock version of the Black Sabbath classics from the mid-1970s. In other places, the group uses progressive or folk rock as well as the fusion style. In general, the music can be compared to that of Atomic Rooster or Deep Purple .
Discography
- 1991: Quicksand Dream (Album, Reflection Records )
- 1999: Orexis of Death (Album, Audio Archives )
- 2005: Live (Live Album, Audio Archives)
- 2005: Necrothology (compilation, audio archives)
- 2005: Orexis of Death Plus ... (re-release of Orexis of Death with bonus material, audio archives)
- 2010: Orexis of Death & Live (Compilation, Rise Above Relics Records )
- 2017: Necromandus (Album, Mandus Music)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Necromandus. (No longer available online.) Fenderstrat.co.uk, archived from the original on March 14, 2016 ; accessed on December 27, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d e f History. necromandusmusic.com, accessed December 29, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Matthias Mader: Necromandus . For a box of Guinness. In: Rock Hard . No. 357 , February 2017, p. 54 f .
- ↑ a b c d e Atavachron (David): Necromandus biography. progarchives.com, accessed December 29, 2017 .
- ^ How The New Album Came About. necromandusmusic.com, accessed December 29, 2017 .
- ↑ Necromandus - Necromandus. Discogs , accessed December 29, 2017 .
- ↑ Eduardo Rivadavia: Necromandus. Allmusic , accessed December 29, 2017 .
- ^ Walter: Necromandus - Orexis Of Death & Live. Metal.de , accessed on December 29, 2017 .
- ^ Matthias Mader: Necromandus . Necromandus. In: Rock Hard . No. 363 , August 2017, p. 95 .
