Review: Akercocke - Antichrist
This is Akercocke's fifth and most recent album, and strong one it is. The British band pushes new boundaries with complex yet melodic acoustic parts, brutal death metal riffing, and even a touch of drum and bass.
The band is most easily described as progressive black/death metal. but even such a broad description seems much too narrow. The vocals alone could not be placed in one category. Jason Mendonca can (and does) pull off everything from the most indecipherable cookie monster grunts, to black metal screeches, to thrash metal barks, even a large portion of impressive sung parts and some powerful spoken words.
Being -in part- a black metal album, the lyrics tend to be anti religious in nature, but even those are done in a way not normally seen. Instead of the average "HAILZ SATANZ DIE CHRISTIANS!!!!" lyrical content, Akercocke instead go the route of invoking questions and introspection, a very refreshing change to a genre that is growing stale.
The musicianship on this album is top notch; complex and technical, without losing its artfulness, which few technical bands seem to do these days (e.g. Lamb of God, Meshuggah) This is not an album based on the idea of "Lets make an hxc crazy hard album and show off how awesome we are and make songs in 9432.59872/8 time!". This is about skilled musicians making music for no one but themselves. Not contrived, unaffected by labels or the intent to sell. The songwriting is excellent, dynamic and intriguing. No tow songs sound the same, yet the album has a cohesive feel overall.
Overall this is a very good album, no weak spots. Songs range from very short (2 mins) to average length (6 mins), which for progressive music, and the band themselves, is quite short. This is not, however a bad thing.
Instrumentals: 9
Vocals: 9
Lyrics: 8
Replay Value: 8
Overall: 8.5
Key Tracks:Axiom:
This song developes from an acoustic piece gradually into a ripping, fast and heavy death metal song. One very key thing on this track is the juxtaposition of acoustic melodies over blast beats. It in theory sounds very strange, but works fantastically, and does not seem awkward in the slightest. The song is based around belief in what is tangible, rather than faith in the unseen. This is extended into the line: "I believe that when i die, I shall rot".
Believe... in what you can see....The Dark Inside:
This song is written in a kind of palindrome format. It starts out hard, fast and brutal, and slowly transitions to be softer, eventually working down to an acoustic run, which finally works its way into a drum and bass groove, which, surprisingly enough, fits perfectly into the song. Its a perfect example of something completely unexpected, which works much better in the song than on paper. The song works its way back to the ripping heaviness it started with and continues on until around the 4 minute mark, at which point it changes pace to very slow, and grinds out most of the rest of the song, before picking up again for a short while, then lightening up for the closing measures.
"Your voice is warm and near, but it means nothing to me...
Your words are like a veil, but they mean nothing else..."
