Akercocke - Choronzon
2004 - Earache Records
By Philip Whitehouse
Go to the Akercocke website.
Akercocke must be loving every minute of this. After having almost every metal critic clamber over themselves to fellate the London Satanic metallers after the release of their groundbreaking sophomore release, The Goat Of Mendes, they have been plucked from respectable-but-small label Peaceville to those legendary purveyors of quality extreme metal, Earache. And now, they've released their third album, and once again critics everywhere are either polishing their superlatives or dusting off their derisory comments, because the question on most of our lips is - was it a fluke, or can Akercocke pull off such an incendiary recording again?
Well, at first, I would have gone for the former - but given a hell of a lot of time to grow, Choronzon proves itself to be one of the finest extreme metal releases in a long time. The Goat Of Mendes was successful because it opened up to elements from both black metal, death metal and ambient darkwave music to conjure up an infernal brew of diabolic malevolence - and it seems as though the boys have opened up even further this time round.
The sound of the album sweeps majestically, from full on Nile-on-amphetamines death metal, to old-school Mayhem worship, to the kind of music that Damien might have heard carried on the winds when he was brought to the fields of Megiddo. Mid-album highlight 'Son Of The Morning' begins with a bare, minimalist grounding of drum-beat, electronics and almost choir-like clean vocals, and could easily be how Depeche Mode would have sounded if they'd enrolled in the Church Of Satan. Other songs invoke elements of doom metal and even a looser rock-and-roll vibe, all perfectly entertwined within the thread of each song.
It's almost as if rather than recording this album in the traditional manner, Akercocke simply distilled the spiritual essence of whichever forms of music they thought would work best, and weaved some dark, alchemical magic to wind all the disparate threads together. And the result is an initially confusing, challenging and at times frustrating listen - but persevere, and you will find that within is a spectacular experiment in extreme metal - not tied down to any particular genre or creed except that which serves their Satanic dictates best.
The horned one alone knows what they're going to come up with next - but I, for one, can't wait.
9.5/10
2004 - Earache Records
By Philip Whitehouse
Go to the Akercocke website.
Akercocke must be loving every minute of this. After having almost every metal critic clamber over themselves to fellate the London Satanic metallers after the release of their groundbreaking sophomore release, The Goat Of Mendes, they have been plucked from respectable-but-small label Peaceville to those legendary purveyors of quality extreme metal, Earache. And now, they've released their third album, and once again critics everywhere are either polishing their superlatives or dusting off their derisory comments, because the question on most of our lips is - was it a fluke, or can Akercocke pull off such an incendiary recording again?
Well, at first, I would have gone for the former - but given a hell of a lot of time to grow, Choronzon proves itself to be one of the finest extreme metal releases in a long time. The Goat Of Mendes was successful because it opened up to elements from both black metal, death metal and ambient darkwave music to conjure up an infernal brew of diabolic malevolence - and it seems as though the boys have opened up even further this time round.
The sound of the album sweeps majestically, from full on Nile-on-amphetamines death metal, to old-school Mayhem worship, to the kind of music that Damien might have heard carried on the winds when he was brought to the fields of Megiddo. Mid-album highlight 'Son Of The Morning' begins with a bare, minimalist grounding of drum-beat, electronics and almost choir-like clean vocals, and could easily be how Depeche Mode would have sounded if they'd enrolled in the Church Of Satan. Other songs invoke elements of doom metal and even a looser rock-and-roll vibe, all perfectly entertwined within the thread of each song.
It's almost as if rather than recording this album in the traditional manner, Akercocke simply distilled the spiritual essence of whichever forms of music they thought would work best, and weaved some dark, alchemical magic to wind all the disparate threads together. And the result is an initially confusing, challenging and at times frustrating listen - but persevere, and you will find that within is a spectacular experiment in extreme metal - not tied down to any particular genre or creed except that which serves their Satanic dictates best.
The horned one alone knows what they're going to come up with next - but I, for one, can't wait.
9.5/10
