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It certainly was a shock to hear female vocals on a Necrodeath album.  "Draculea" is a concept album based on the story of Vlad Tepes, with the opening and closing tracks having a "romanticized" feel mostly due to a rather gothic style and the female vocals.  On the other hand, the other songs are more of the Black/Thrash variety that one would expect from Necrodeath, although I found this album to be a lot more "refined" than, say, "Mater of All Evil" (which was pretty raw and chaotic in comparison.)  The vocals sound like a mix of the three bigs of German Thrash, at various times sounding more or less like Sodom, Kreator and Destruction, also with a good dose of very well done "whispered" vocals that give a great "horror/suspense" effect whenever they're used.  The band definitely sound tighter here, and there's a lot more stylistic variety than in their past albums - from blackened Thrash to very slow-paced guitars and drums with some annoying electronic sounds (that nonetheless serve their purpose.)  A cover of Venom's "Countess Bathory" is thrown in the middle of this - very well done and not too far from the original, but with a few interesting variations.  Toward the end of the last track, there's a silence that lasts about a minute, following by a loud scream.  You know how much that kind of thing annoys me.  But hey, that's the only "major" annoyance on the album.

It took a couple of listens for this one to start sinking in, probably because I really wasn't prepared for this, and expecting more of the same from Necrodeath.  This baby gets better with every listens, always revealing something new.  An interesting twist on the conventional Black/Thrash style.