Antichrist

After an album like "Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone", the most reasonable thing would be to slow down a bit and focus on promoting the album at the concerts...nope, this is too normal a scenario for the band of today's thread. Akercocke, despite presenting such an explosive and unique mix of extreme and progressive music, generally releasing album after album and gaining significant commercial successes, could not get enough. Barely a year after the premiere of the brilliant "Words That Go Unspoken...", the band started composing new material. First, there were quite significant changes in the line-up, i.e. Peter Theobalds left the band, and in his place a new bassist appeared and - in a sense - a quite important person for the further Akercocke sounds, i.e. Peter Benjamin. When the band stabilized (which, of course, did not take long), the group released in 2007 its fifth album - "Antichrist".

Well, "Antichrist" is a clear example that nothing is permanent - including Akercocke's greatness. And I know perfectly well that after such a banger as "Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone", recording something even better and more ambitious would be impossible, but it was hard to imagine that the band would take such a significant step back. "Antichrist" gives the impression of a cross-sectional album, consisting of elements known from "The Goat Of Mendes" and "Choronzon" and it refers to "Words That Go Unspoken..." to a very small extent. It is still progressive, although it's impossible not to notice that the group has greatly simplified the issues of brutality, varied structures and contrasts - as if they were just discovering this style, in reference to their first longplays. There is no previous madness or crazy ideas, but as a consolation, there are occasional, buzzing keyboard inserts and fragments with gentle, almost pop vocals (although without female vocals), which could not necessarily fit on "Words That Go Unspoken...".

"Antichrist" is generally a very good release, but it disappoints in several important respects and is pushed down by the greatness of its predecessors. I've already mentioned that it's not as crazy as "Words That Go Unspoken...". Going further, the sound of the drums is strange, irritated by the rubbery sound of the snare, the interlude "Distant Fires Reflect In The Eyes Of Satan" breaks the dynamics of the album and the outro in the form of the tearful "Epode" (soft guitars and the sobbing of the vocalist - in this case by Peter Benjamin) is a gross tactlessness. Despite the alleged disappointment, many great songs were also included on "Antichrist". For example, "My Apterous Angel", "Footsteps Resound In An Empty Chapel", "Axiom" or "Summon The Antichrist", which, even if they do not discover anything new for Akercocke, are so characteristic that they cannot be confused with another band. Drilling riffs, intense blast beats, calmer moments, diverse vocals (from death-grind gutturals through black screams to gentle singing), elegant-satanic atmosphere, high technical level - it's all there. Another confirmation that in the case of "Antichrist" it's not a crap, despite some conservativeness, is the form of individual musicians, which continues to impress. David Gray perfectly combines intense blasting with finesse, Jason Mendonça and Matt Wilcock come up with a lot of ideas for riffs, and Peter Benjamin is as audible as the guitars. That's a lot for quite typical material.

Well, "Antichrist" is quite a typical album for Akercocke - even a kind of best of made of new songs. It's not bad (because this band has never recorded weak material), but it doesn't excite as much as its predecessors. The formula has depleted out a bit and everything that was previously innovative has become common here. "Antichrist" also turned out to be the last album from the first, most laborious period for Akercocke. Later, the group existed for another 5 years, although this did not come into anything new. After the breakup, Peter Benjamin and David Gray focused on Voices, which had a very similar climate, while the latter simultaneously jumped into The Antichrist Imperium, a project no less different from Voices. What about Akercocke, you ask? Well, time showed that "Antichrist" fortunately was not the last word from these gentlemen.

Originally on A bit of subjectivism...in metal