Behold the Son of Plagues

The “orthodox” perception of Black Metal has won many fans and a lot of bands have found a way of expressing themselves through that face of Black Metal. The Greek Akrotheism with their second release and their first full length one which was released in February of 2014, they make a stable and big step into “orthodox” Black Metal. So, “Behold the Son of Plagues” contains nine compositions of their own and one interesting cover of “To Swarm Deserted Away” of Ved Buens Ende, of overall duration a little less of an hour. As always, the first impressions are created by the visual side of an album, here too, the beautiful artwork for the frond and the back cover, as also the drawings that come along with the lyrics predispose the listener in a positive way.

The music that the listener will come across here is dark, violent and in some parts chaotic. The riffs, regarding the technical and regarding the style they show the influences of the band such as Marduk and Dark Funeral as also some influences of newer sound as that of Funeral Mist and Aosoth. The rhythm mainly is fast with a lot of medium or slow speed parts while the riffs in the faster parts are typical tremolo riffs, fast, violent and full of hatred. In the slower parts the riffs become cleaner and more melodic, other times rhythmic full of energy and other times slow, dark, they create mysterious atmosphere and they hypnotize the listener. The tracks, concerning their duration, are quite big (from 6 to 8 minutes) but the interesting riffs, on one hand, the good composing ability of the band and the correct structure that they have managed to achieve for the tracks, they don’t hinder nor tire the listener, only in a few moments.

The good work that the band has done, apart from the composing of the tracks, it is perceived both is the instrumentation and in the overall result of the sound. The guitars are the ruling instrument of the compositions, so it is the most highlighted. It is played with much passion and intensity delivering the feelings very vividly, without lacking in accuracy. The bass is present but its sound is somehow dirty, so that its lines are not clearly audible, but only in the slower and clean parts. The drums are brutal and solid while their lines are fast with beautiful rhythmic passages, they make the compositions more violent and chaotic. The vocals are the typical, harsh Black Metal vocals, they are quite expressive and intense. The lyrics are written in English, in a quite weird and symbolic way and they have obvious references to the so called “Orthodox Satanism”. The listener in order to begin decrypting them, understanding them and feeling them, he must show much attention and significance to them, but that will surely compensate him as he will feel deeper the atmosphere and the message of the music.

Summing up, I believe that the first full length release of Akrotheism despite the similarities with other bands of that sound, they have their own personality that they manage to make it present inside every one of their compositions. Their talent regarding composing and lyrics’ writing is undeniable, while the work that they have done for the result of the sound, it shows that they follow an uncompromised, unsatisfied with mediocrity, better described as perfectionist philoshophy. By continuing working in the same way we will listen to a lot of nice things by them in the future. Regarding “Behold the Son of Plagues”, it is a very good album. The fans of that kind of sound, buy it without fear. The rest of you it worth to listen to it.