I discovered this band with the release of "Words that go unspoken" and was changed, I now own their entire catalog sans one album... Comparing the experience to the first time I heard TOOL in high school and that band almost making all other rock bands obsolete. Same in the sense that I have grown into heavier things, but music for me has got to be something that you can bite and will bite you back and this band, if you let it, can and will make all other Death Metal bands seem obsolete. Now I love bands like cannibal corpse and Nevermore, but when bands get TOO technical I get lost and forget why the hell I'm listening to this music in the first place (bands like Dillinger escape plan and cryptopsy come to mind, but that's not to say they aren't extremely talented musicians and that I do enjoy a few of their songs, i'm just using them as a reference and also saying basically that I still appreciate the power of great song writing, arrangements and of course RIFFS, let alone the lost art of writing an album you can LISTEN TO ALL THE WAY THROUGH and as soon as it's done want to press play all over again!! But when bands get "Technical" in the sense of making the music progressive but still show you a song structure, then that's when you got me, like with say Mastodon... Now, when a band such as Akercocke comes along, with so much damn talent oozing from them and songs that leave you're jaw hanging open like you've had too much thorazine but yet you're still helplessly head-banging and air-guitaring like an idiot all over the place, let alone, as a musician find yourself inspired like you've never been to explore new territory with your instruments, well, bands like this are few and far between my friend. While wishing them great success, I'm also kind of glad they aren't everyones favorite band yet, just makes it all the more devilishly sweet. All hail AKERCOCKE!!!

First of all I am a new fan of Akercocke. Antichrist is the first cd of their's that I have purchased, and after just a couple of listens, I went and bought Akercocke's whole catalog of cd's. Akercocke is a wonderful blend of different types of metal. The main theme in the music is of course Satan, but this is a blend of Death, Progressive, and Black metal! I guess the best way to describe Akercocke is Opeth with Satan thrown into the mix except only much better. Favorite songs: Axiom, My Apterous Angel, and The Dark Inside.

I was anticipating this album for a long time although I was also worried that it might be a letdown. I had kept up with the bands teasers and youtube updates and some elements (including the title Antichrist) seemed sort of slipshod.

I'm happy to say that the album is ultimately not a disappointment, its dark, brutal, progressive, all the things I love about AK. That being said there are a few things I don't like:

The production on this album is crap. Its strange because it seems like their production got worse from their previous albums. When the first actual song, Summon the Antichrist, begins you hear a rapid drum fill that leads into a blast and distorted guitars. Its SUPPOSED to sound really explosive and crushing, except it doesn't because the drums sound like a cheap electric kit (they didn't even use a real bass drum according to the video logs) and the guitars sound like sludge with no punch whatsoever.

Furthermore, there are very noticeable messups on this album. The most noticeable is during Axiom with the clean acoustic guitars over a blast beat. Its a wonderful concept which is ruined by David Gray flamming all over the place with his kick drum. Couple this with Jason Mendonca's singing (this guy needs to train his voice, every album when he sings clean he is always straining and off pitch)and you have several periods of wincing while listening to the album.

Still all the problems dont change that this album is absolutely killer and a complete headtrip. The prog concepts and songwriting (minus the lyrics) are ingenious. Atmospheric doesn't even begin to describe the experience and it is quite a dark experience.

Best song: My Apterous Angel