Acephalix - "Interminable Night" (2011) [Southern Lord Records]

Crusty, d-beat laden death metal? Oh hell yes. From the opening chugs I knew this album was going to be a rager. Old-school buzz-saw guitar tone in full effect, coupled with driving d-beats and harsh-as-swallowing-sand vocals. This is crust punk and grind mixed with old-school death metal, creating an absolutely brutal sound that most bands could only wish to achieve. The aggression quotient of this album is through the roof, there is no beauty, no technical wank, only bulldozing, pile-driving death metal.

The uprising of old-school death metal makes me very happy, death metal is supposed to be dirty, raw, unpolished and barbaric. While I do love some technical death (Defeated Sanity, Disgorge, Deeds Of Flesh, Suffocation), nothing can take the place of bands who worship at the altar of true death. Acephalix sound straight out of the late 80s/early 90s. Especially frightening considering two factors; A) they have only been around since 2007 and B) they are from the US. The US is known for the more polished death metal sounds, while Europe is known more for the disgusting, morbid kind of death metal sound. Who would have thought? Not I.

There is a TON of crust influence in the Acephalix sound, which I absolutely love, especially considering it does not take away from the death metal element. It only enhances and compliments it in the most perfect sense. Rusty chainsaw guitar/bass tone, primitive yet complimentary drumming and caveman-like vocal bursts bathe the album in ugly. Uncontrollably headbanging riffs and all out nasty production make this album a gem in the current NWoOSDM (new wave of old-school death metal, see what I did there?) scene. Another brilliant thing about this album is that it is FUN. Not much death metal is fun anymore and not fun in a campy death/grind or neo-thrash kind of way, but fun in an early Entombed/Dismember kind of way. The kind of fun where you put the album on, break everything you own, go start a fight with the first person you see and then go to the nearest gas station, to drink gas in victory kind of way.

A must have for fans of gritty death metal and grimy crust punk, pick this album up, I assure you that a generous reward is in store for you. Amazing.


E.