I bought Chronzon before this, and felt a little trepidation about what I would think of it. I worried over nothing. Choronzon is by far the better record, but this has a raw edge to it that makes it immeadiately compelling. A black metal quality, that, somehow fits itself in nicely with the far more aggressive death metal body that makes up this album.
Alot of the tracks switch back and forth from black to death effortlessly, with a quick blast beat, or at the other end of the scale, a clean vocal, to seperate the two. This is a real treat to hear, as listening to purely "black", or purely "death" metal, can from time to time become a little stagnant in the vocals department. With the rich spoken word parts on songs such as "A Skin For Dancing In", its enough to keep your attention throughout. Add to that the female harmonies that acompany the brutal death growls of Jason Mendonca and you have an instant black metal classic. Like the sticker on the front says, This band really are the most evil sounding lot to come out of the UK in a long time.
The drums on this album are very fast and dynamic. The guitar riffs as well are catchy and fast (to say they were easy on the ear would be doing them a disservice) with plenty of time changes and rolling thrash style sprints to get the blood pumping.
Akercocke know how to write a tune. Of that there is no doubt.
I am more a fan of the death metal sound, rather than the black metal high pitched, wailing style. This album is safely more 'death' in style, but 'black metal' in feel (and obviously lyrical content). Saying that, my favourite moment on the whole disk is about 44 seconds in to "The Serpent" with its darker than dark bass blast. Black metal blasting in the true old skool style. Evil!
This album is a must buy for those listeners who appreciate old skool black metal like Darkthrone Necromantia etc...
But its also heavy and deathly enough to more than satisfy the needs of those who like their music down tuned and growling!
Hail those goat worshiping, suit wearing charlies!