Acrimonious – Sunyata
Definitely not your typical Greek sounding band, Acrimonious embrace a ritualistic black metal aesthetic that is expansive and very skillfully developed. The Greek Pantheon of bands typically utilize twin guitar harmonies and just plain unique melodies to walk the line between the death and black realms of audial devil worship to create a style that is so much more advanced than the metal world surrounding them. Acrimonious do this as well, but their musical affinity is more black metal minded with dissonant riffs and that special ugly chord that twists with an unease often found whispering a chill of coldness down from the northern territories. Acrimonious’ Greek spirit for songwriting with airy riffs so full of movement as found on the superior “Lykaria Hecate”, the outpouring of melody is very atmospheric and almost playful in how the chord progressions move through this track (and the dark). “Adharma” feels more constricting to the listener as infinitely layered musical lines, several guitar parts, a fully audible bass line, and the embattled vocal desperation rile in a swarm of reverb to cause a mighty weight to press down and introduce a level of uncertainty and fear to this bands already adept equation. The mid section of this song in particular feels like a ritual gone out of control with smoke swirling, chanted evocations, and a drug induced hallucination that inspires/commands all the participants to fall upon their own blades. Such mental visions that arise from an album may sound cheesy on paper, but I take such things as pure talent, where a band can reach out with their music and actually paint a picture in ones mind. Bands like Summoning possess the power to do this with every note of their being, and though I’m not suggesting that Acrimonious are on the same lofty level of greatness as those 2 special Austrians, Sunyata effortlessly blurs the lines between inspired aggression, impressive instrumentation, powerful atmosphere, and a musical vocabulary that builds upon simple lines of sound with very mature movements and fearless melody. Bravo Acrimonious! You have taken an often tired form of black metal, made it your own, and recharged it with your intense lust for the void. Definitely an album to get lost in while wearing headphones. -Marty
Agonia Records
Worm Gear 