Antichrist

One of the most anticipated albums of the year (for myself anyway), Akercocke returns to follow up 2005's grand release "Words that Go Unspoken, Deeds that Go Undone". A lot of expectations have been set for this album, especially since the band has been improving on its sound since their debut in the late 90s. Each album manages to progress from the last, with their brand of black/death metal taking influence from a myriad of styles. Does "Antichrist" live up to its hype?

The simple answer is yes. What we have here is a magnificent progressive album that avoids falling into traps that most progressive bands end up falling into. That trap is, while it contains a lot of different influences and stylings throughout, Akercocke manages to keep the song writing sounding natural, and avoids forcing pieces together. A lot of progressive bands, especially in this spectrum of extreme metal, try to throw in some random genre in their music, and fail miserably. Akercocke, on the other hand, allows their songs to flow into these parts. While these parts sound surprising and unique, they do not sound abrupt or out of place.

The album's first actual song opens up with a deadly riff, and makes a definite statement. "Summon the Antichrist" will certainly summon up any demon with its demonic vocals and satanic lyrics. The song flows nicely, giving the listener deadly riffs countered with chord progressions. A definite winner. The next track opens up with some acoustics overtop of blastbeats. While this sounds awkward, it proves to be effective, and the momentum of the blasts lead into the following riffs with precision.

The album continues to flow and run around all over the place whilst doing so. "The Promise" features some interesting vocal work by Jason Mendonca. This man can certainly sing a wide range of vocals. The aforementioned track features some majestic sounding singing, while in other tracks he sings with various tones, and switches to evil screams and guttural work. In fact, the use of the vocal work combined with the progressive nature of Akercocke's music makes it seem much like a well written musical. Satanists are said to have an eye for aesthetics, and Akercocke certainly live up to this assessment.

Another track that really stands out to me is "The Dark Inside". It opens up with some more deadly riffing, but then changes to some clean guitars accompanies by Jason's excellent singing, and switches into an electronica sounding part. Again, Akercocke manages to make an idea that could potentially be awkward/a failure into a massively effective arrangement. This is probably the most extreme example of this on the album, as I felt it should be mentioned in this review.

These guys have certainly released a stellar album that once again pushes beyond their back catalogue through the use of dynamic song structure and exquisite musicianship. Everything from David Gray's drumming, to Matt Wilcock's lead work, to the satanic lyrics are steps beyond their peers' efforts. Bands like Opeth simply cower in fear to such well written and executed albums, and could learn a lesson from Akercocke (especially after their last abomination). So far this has to be one of my top albums released in 2007. One can only ponder what these guys will do next.