Autokrator - Hammer Of The Heretics review
Band: | Autokrator |
Album: | Hammer Of The Heretics |
Style: | Blackened death metal |
Release date: | April 2018 |
01. Against Flesh And Blood
02. Le Sang Impur
03. Interlude
04. Hammer Of The Heretics
05. Inquisitio-Denunciatio-Exceptio
It seems like Autokrator have taken a few hints from Portal's newest album, taking a bit of the tectonic crust off their amplifiers, leaving just enough on to keep their sound still drenched in that "Lovecraft in a cave" sound.
Those still unfamiliar with Autokrator should be wary of attempting to listen without full body armor. Autokrator's sound is at its core death metal, but played in such a distorted manner that it makes it sound as if the band were playing from underneath earth's magma. Couple that with the repetitive industrial drumming, it creates an absolutely crushing, droning and suffocating sound. Sure, a lot of metal bands can boast about how evil they sound, but few of them ever sound as out-of-this-world as Autokrator. And with just 4 years as a band, this is already their third release.
The Obedience To Authority saw a bit more emphasis on the ambient passages, but Hammer Of The Heretics brings a lot more focus on songwriting to be put in conjuncture with already emphasized ambiance. This is made more obvious by the production, which is a lot clearer, as already mentioned, without sacrificing too much of their original sound, which is their strongest asset. The drums play another big role in the album's sound, now played by Kévin Paradis; thus the industrial mechanized sound is replaced by something much more organic-sounding. The changes in sound do make their music lose the droning feeling it had on the previous record, bringing the album's sound closer to blackened death metal, but likely the heaviest and most crushing of its kind.
Conceptually, leaving behind the excesses of power brought by Roman emperors and the likes, or even the dictatorships that N.K.V.D. approached, Autokrator focuses instead on the religious, specifically on Christianity, the Knights Templar, and the inquisition, a fittingly evil and corrupt theme for an evil and corrupt sound.
Hammer Of The Heretics is definitely Autokrator's least monotonous release, and even if one were to find not enough variance in this album, the band maintains its tradition of not having their releases exceed 40 minutes, so even if there might not be enough variance in between songs, they have proven that they can move their sound forward from release to release; yet it still remains unmerciful, dense, and absolutely evil.
Drink full and descend.
Rating breakdown
Performance: | 9 |
Songwriting: | 8 |
Originality: | 9 |
Production: | 8 |
| Written on 29.03.2018 by Doesn't matter that much to me if you agree with me, as long as you checked the album out. |
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