Akercocke - Choronzon
2003 Earache

Track Listing:
1.  Praise The Name Of Satan
2.  Prince Of The North
3.  Leviathan
4.  Enraptured By Evil
5.  Choronzon
6.  Valley Of The Crucified
7.  Bathylkopian Avatar
8.  Upon Coriacious Wings
9.  Scapegoat
10. Son Of The Morning
11. Becoming The Adversary
12. Goddess

Line-Up:
Vocals:  Jason Mendonca
Guitars:  Paul Scanlan, Jason Mendonca
Bass:  Peter Theobald
Drums:  David Gray
Electronics:  Martin Bonsoir

Website:  www.akercocke.com

Shev's Rating:  A
Average Album Rating:  A

Also be sure to read:
Akercocke - Rape Of The Bastard Nazarene  by Shev

Shev's Review:
Even though Akercocke tends to succumb to a "love it or hate it" blend of death/black, one thing is all but certain about these Brits...they tend to expand with every new album.  This being their third full-length and follow-up to "Goat Of Mendes", they certainly had some high bars to vault over.  The biggest advancement obviously being their high production value which certainly seemed to detract from previous Akercocke efforts regardless of the quality of the music.

The album kicks off, appropriately enough, with the ridiculously creepy intro to "Praise The Name Of Satan".  Just the intro being a cool two minutes in length, it actually stretches the song to over seven minutes long.  By the time you've reached "Prince Of The North", you're already showing some signs of wear.  Paul Scanlan and John Mendonca do an amazing job on the riffs, keeping everything in perspective while slicing and dicing through the thrashiest death riffs to the most delicate of picking.  All around awesome job on the solo-work, as well.

Jason's vocals do the usual toggling between typically rangeless black metal screeches and guttural growl, but throw in some clean material in an effort to add a touch of ambiance and doom in places.  Quite honestly, so few bands can convincingly pull something like this off that it's all but expected for it to not properly function, so I don't necessarily hold it against the album.  Also of note is the nice use of keyboards, something I can usually do without, but they make a conscious effort to keep them in check and not allow it to overpower and control the music.  There's very little I hate more than a band so inept at songwriting that the keyboards are forced to carry every tune.

Only a few really bad points to the album.  First being some of the drum sound, which is unfortunate as the drums are tight, well-executed, and compliments the mood-swings well, but in parts will actually sounds worse than a drum machine.  Other than that blemish, we're just looking at a few weak fillers which is something to be expected from Akercocke anyway. "Prince Of The North" consists of nothing more than Middle Eastern-flavored atmosphere dominated with snake charming wind instruments.  The title track "Choronzon" which is just a short into to "Valley Of The Crucified" revolving around a few notes and some background.  Plus the absolute worst track on the CD is by far "Upon Coriacious Wings", which not only gets points taken off for the incorrect spelling of the word "coriaceous", but the fact it's yet another glorified intro that resembles a reject from one of those "Wickedly Scary Sounds" cassettes that grocery stores sell around Halloween for $1.79.

Favorites of Choronzon include "Scapegoat" and "Becoming The Adversary".  Look past their cheesy imagery gimmick and give this act a chance if you're not familiar with them by now.  Holds up well under repeated spins, and is a must listen for fans of death and black metal alike.
Shev's Rating:  A

Discography (last updated 12.23.05):
Rape Of The Bastard Nazarene - 1999
The Goat Of Mendes - 2001
Choronzon - 2003
Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone - 2005