Antichrist

Since 1998 Akercocke have been one of the must unique and exiting extreme metal bands in the scene today. They combine elements of black and progressive metal into their own extreme styled death metal to create an original and truly memorable sound. After hearing the progressive masterpiece that was Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone I had high hopes for their 5th album Antichrist. I had bought the limited edition with covers of Morbid Angel and Death off the Earache Eurostore. When I inserted into my CD player that sound that emerged completely blew me away. The experimental progressive parts and the blasting riffs come together to make this one of my favourite albums in my CD collection.

The high level of musicianship in all Akercocke’s albums has always impressed me, but Antichrist took it to the next level. The brutal riffing of Jason Mendonca and Matt Wilcock is simple and not technically difficult, yet the sheer speed and the way it contributes to the overall atmosphere is incredible. David Gray never fails to impress with his fast technical drumming and blast beats. New bass player peter Benjamin also gave a good performance the bass is audible and skilfully played for the duration of the album.

Mendonca has an incredible vocal range. He can do death metal growls, black metal screeches, shouts and clean melodic vocals. This massive range is a manger contributor to Akercocke’s awesome sound. The lyrics, mainly written by David Gray deal with the standard Akercocke theme of Satanism. These lyrics however are nothing like ‘I Hate God’ or ‘Burn Jesus’ lyrics that bands like Deicide come up with, they are much more subtle which make them seem sinister and all the more effective.

Song Writing on this album is good, but not quite up to the standard of Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone. The songs may have slightly too much emphasis on the progressive and experimental side of their sound rather than the blasting that they are so good at. However when you absorb the masterpiece that is Summon the Antichrist you don’t really care about this. Another downside to the song writing is the transaction from blasting to melodic and vice versa is no where near up the standard it was on Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone. On their previous album the transaction was smooth and it flowed but if you listen to Axiom, or Summon the Antichrist they have not achieved this on this album. I am only saying this to find something bad about the album, seriously its only a tiny problem an no ones really going to care about it.

The production on this album is much sharper and better than the other albums. Their other albums had a slightly muddy sound but its much clearer on this album and the bass guitar is much more audible. All the different tracks are mixed perfectly in order to create an album that is full of atmosphere.

For me standout tracks include the two openers (not counting Black Messiah) for the diversity in sounds and styles that come through in them all. If you’re going to buy this album I would highly recommend getting the limited edition. The covers of Morbid Angel- Chapel of Ghouls and Death- Leprosy are really worth having.

Overall this is a great album, and if you like progressive music, Akercocke, or enjoyed Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone go out and buy it. Its different sound types from different genres of music make it a great listen and you will never get bored of it.