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Acephalous - Divine Purity
Rotten To The Core - RTTC008 - March 9th, 2007
By Jordan Knoll
With Divine Purity, Belgian trio Acephalous have unleashed an interesting mix of melodic black metal and death metal upon the masses. Their sound could be best described as old Sacramentum meets Alf Svensson era At The Gates coupled with an accessible flare more common to the newer wave of death metal and deathcore acts. Thus it should not be surprising that Acephalous’ main method of attack is based around relentless counterpoint tremolo picked riffing. And it is here where the band is clearly the most comfortable as the melodies and combinations that result therein are greatly satisfying.
However, in trying to combine accessibility with their trademark riffing style Divine Purity falters. Often times just as pieces have gained significant momentum the band, seemingly running out of ideas, falls back on rather generic breakdowns or ‘chugga-chugga’ riffing that restricts enjoyment from being ‘great’ to merely ‘good’. This is a shame too, because the foundation of Acephalous’ sound is extremely solid. Perhaps this is an immaturity issue that can be alleviated in future works but as it stands now Divine Purity shows a young band with great promise that falls just short of prominence. Still, fans of heavily tremolo based riff work from both black and death metal should definitely give Divine Purity a listen as Acephalous seem to be one of the few remaining acts upholding this intense and unique style.
Official Acephalous Myspace
Official Shiver/Rotten To the Core Records Website
Rotten To The Core - RTTC008 - March 9th, 2007
By Jordan Knoll
With Divine Purity, Belgian trio Acephalous have unleashed an interesting mix of melodic black metal and death metal upon the masses. Their sound could be best described as old Sacramentum meets Alf Svensson era At The Gates coupled with an accessible flare more common to the newer wave of death metal and deathcore acts. Thus it should not be surprising that Acephalous’ main method of attack is based around relentless counterpoint tremolo picked riffing. And it is here where the band is clearly the most comfortable as the melodies and combinations that result therein are greatly satisfying.
However, in trying to combine accessibility with their trademark riffing style Divine Purity falters. Often times just as pieces have gained significant momentum the band, seemingly running out of ideas, falls back on rather generic breakdowns or ‘chugga-chugga’ riffing that restricts enjoyment from being ‘great’ to merely ‘good’. This is a shame too, because the foundation of Acephalous’ sound is extremely solid. Perhaps this is an immaturity issue that can be alleviated in future works but as it stands now Divine Purity shows a young band with great promise that falls just short of prominence. Still, fans of heavily tremolo based riff work from both black and death metal should definitely give Divine Purity a listen as Acephalous seem to be one of the few remaining acts upholding this intense and unique style.
Official Acephalous Myspace
Official Shiver/Rotten To the Core Records Website
