The Antichrist Imperium
VOLUME II: EVERY TONGUE SHALL PRAISE SATAN APOCALYPTIC WITCHCRAFT SECOND TIME ROUND FOR THE PAST AND PRESENT AK-ITES
FROM AN OUTSIDER’S perspective, The Antichrist Imperium emerged to fill the void left by Akercocke’s thenseemingly indefinite hiatus. With drummer David Gray alongside former members Matt Wilcock and Sam Bean (both also ex-The Berzerker) and vocalist Sam Loynes (another Akercocke alumni and David’s bandmate in Voices… it’s a complicated business!), the band’s music was inevitably cut from a similar cloth to their collective alma mater. As a result, this second batch of proudly blasphemous and defiantly wonky death metal cannot escape comparisons with Akercocke’s triumphant 2017 return, Renaissance In Extremis. Fortunately, songs like epic opener The Dreadful Hosanna and the cracked progdeath of Golgothian Hieros Gamos brim with thrilling, ‘What the fuck?’ moments. Liturgy Of The Iconoclast Blood Sacrifice’s serene opening is perhaps the biggest red herring here; it starts with vocalist Sam in that plummy, confessional mode that fans will know from Akercocke and Voices records, but the way the song mutates and begins to eat itself places it much further left of centre than The Antichrist’s Imperium’s heads-down’n’blasting impulses might otherwise suggest. Meanwhile, Sermon Of Small Faith is a gleefully vicious mini-symphony that ends the album with a blast of icy unease.
A worthy addition to a complex legacy.
FOR FANS OF: AKERCOCKE, VOICES, VADER