Rites of the Black Mass

Acheron's debut, "Rites of the Black Mass" (released in 1992) is almost universally considered the magnum opus of Acheron's discography, with the band's limited (yet dedicated!) fanbase often hailing it as a minor classic of the Florida old school death scene, and perhaps an early antecedent of the "blackened death metal" subgenre. A lot of metalheads will probably complain that the music sounds simplistic and ultimately pretty dated in it's execution (mostly with the "intro" tracks), and I must admit that I was a little underwhelmed when I first heard the album as well...I was expecting something truly evil and depraved, on the level of "Onwards to Golgotha", "Acts of the Unspeakable", or the first couple Deicide albums. I have to be honest, though...compared to those albums, on the "creepiness" factor this album is on the same level as one of those plastic Halloween decorations you buy at the dollar store which has a smiling ghost saying "BOO!" or whatever. That said, I wouldn't say it's a "goofy" album or anything (well, not the songs at least...), and it's actually quite evil in it's own way. I guess it just appeals to the ear in a more direct manner, in-your-face and powerful. Don't expect some kind of ultra-pretentious, nihilistic, shit here...this is just really good headbangin' music...hard, fast, & heavy!

Much of this album exists at two paces. You've got your fast-paced tracks, like "To Thee We Confess" & "Prayer of Hell", which resemble early Death (or maybe "Where No Life Dwells"-era Unleashed?) with a nice aftertaste of old school (black metal-era) Bathory or even Venom. The other pace is your slower numbers, like "Unholy Praises" & "Ave Satanas", which will remind the listener of Obituary with maybe a little "Morbid Tales"-era Celtic Frost sprinkled on top, for good measure. But perhaps the most interesting, are the parts of the album that exist in the middle, which are actually sort of difficult to describe. The three longest tracks on the album, namely "Thou Art Lord", "Cursed Nazarene", and "Let Us Depart", are slightly less heavy, and more powerful and anthemic in nature, you may even pick up on a light (and I do mean light) sprinkling of classic heavy metal here, just with how these songs are structured and how they come together. "One With Darkness", for example (sort of an in between the slow and mid-paced style), combines an Obituary-esque riff with a rhythm which will remind the listener of something like Venom's "Countess Bathory" or Unleashed's "The Immortals".

Musically, don't expect any stellar musicianship here. Everything on this record is competant musically, but nothing awe-inspiring, except for maybe Vincent Crowley's quite excellent vocal work, this being his peak performance if you ask me, with some very powerful, deep demonic death grunts. The other two members on this album, are Pete Slate on guitars, and Jim Strauss on drums (who coincidentally I just met in person the day before writing this review). Both are very talented musicians, who sadly only ever appeared on this one Acheron release. Both have a pretty straight-forward, balls to the wall-style, but are also able to show off their talents, for example Pete performs a number of pretty decent guitar solos spread throughout the disc, like the one in "To Thee We Confess". What you can expect instead of flashy musicianship, are simply really powerful songs. "Thou Art Lord" in particular, has every right to be the signature song not only for Acheron, but for blackened death metal in general, it's so catchy and anthemic. "Unholy Praises" is a fucking monster, the first riff would easily devastate and burn any church beyond recognition. "To Thee We Confess" is a pure fucking rager, and features some vaguely second wave black metal riff/chord structuring throughout. The only real weak link is "Ave Satanas", and even that isn't really a bad track in any way, it just features a main riff which feels like "diet Autopsy" if that makes sense.

I think the real elephant in the room, when it comes to this album, are the interludes. It's likely inspired by Pestilence's masterpiece from the previous year, "Testimony of the Ancients"...but less artistic, and more...uhhhh....yeah. Basically each one consists of some "eerie", ambient keyboard melodies with some pitchshifted, Satanic sermons on top of them. Some are cooler than others, and none of them are really "bad". Honestly, I don't really find them annoying either, as none of them are particularly long (the longest is like 1:25 or something), and they do attempt to build up a sense of atmosphere which isn't really present in the actual songs (the production is excellent, but it could benefit from something a bit more raw and darker). At best, they are a fun, slightly campy addition that enhances the 'experience' of listening to this CD as a whole. At worst, they are just kind of silly sounding and, of course, easily skippable.

All in all, I consider "Rites of the Black Mass" to be an essential, classic death metal album. It's something that all death & black metal fans should have listened to, at least once, because I feel like this album helped define what would go on to become "blackened death metal". It does seem to be somewhat polarizing, with some people really not liking it...which actually surprises me. Sure, it's maybe not as musically advanced as bands like Malevolent Creation, Death, or Morbid Angel (or even Obituary, honestly), but that's not what it's aiming for. It hits hard as a combination of classic death metal, with some touches of first-wave black metal, and it fucking rules. As I said earlier, don't expect some life-changing epic masterpiece for which you can write a lengthy pseudo-intellectual essay about it's "nihilistic qualities" or whatever. This is just a fun, powerful, brutal death metal CD, and should be treated and expected as such.