Akercoke - Decades of Devil Worship (2023)

Unleashing their characteristic levels of insane brutality, today we have UK’s Akercoke with their live offering “Decades of Devil Worship”. Like a bag of cement to the face, this release perfectly captures the band’s vicious and relentless musical onslaughts, delivering 64 minutes of some of their more hellish songs. If you never experienced the band live, this album gets you right in front of the action, making you want to start breaking things and moshing incessantly.

After the eerie “Conjuration” intro, the band fully discharges their punishing aggression with “Hell”, “Nadja”, and “Marguerite & Gretchen”. While the band’s sound is piercing, their technicality and execution is brilliant, making sounds sound very crisp and direct, as “Zuleika” and “Il giardino di Monte Oliveto Maggiore” demonstrate.

Not being one dimensional, the band nicely adds melody and proggy elements to songs like “Of Menstrual Blood & Semen” and “A Skin for Dancing In”, creating a very pummeling and yet refined mixture. We love aggression in Metal music, but when it is perfectly blended with musicality and crafty tempo changes, it becomes more powerful. With “He Is Risen“ and the dramatic “Ceremony of Nine Angles” being included as bonus tracks, this release will leave a ringing sound in your ear as it comes to a close.

Overall, “Decades of Devil Worship” is one crushing live review that captures the band’s live intensity. While many live releases sound a bit wonky or the songs are not as intense as the original version, this is not the case with Akercoke, as the release is very well mixed and the band totally kills in delivering these songs. If you are looking for uncompromising brutality, look no further and get a copy of this release.

Label: Peaceville Records

Release: July 21st, 2023

Genre: Death/Black Metal

Country: UK