ACROSTICHON - Engraved In Black (DOOMENTIA - LP 2013)
I am and I think I always have been a big fan
of the Dutch death metal, with such bands as Asphyx, Gorefest, God Dethroned,
Thanatos, Excavation, Delirium, Sinister, Mystic Charm, Pestilence, Beyond
Belief, Acrostichon, Eternal Solstice plus few more, which I probably forgot
now. This country had unique, heavy feeling when speaking of the sound and
style of the bands from Holland and that is why so many of them really were my
favourites – and still are, as they are just immortal classics for me. Anyway,
here I am going to review another classic album – Acrostichon’s “Engraved In
Black”. Well, Acrostichon for sure is one of those bands, which I got to know
quite early, as I used to have a cassette version of this album in the mid
90’s, I think it was released by Lout Out, but I am not 100% sure now. I lost
this cassette years ago. Recently I’ve noticed that Memento Mori from Spain is
going to re-issue this album on CD, with some demo songs as bonus… and wow,
just as many similar reissues it quickly ended up on my shipping list. Somehow
though I was postponing the purchase, until one day I saw that Doomentia
Records from Czech Republic plans to release a vinyl version of “Engraved In
Black”. And let’s be honest – to have this record on vinyl became a quick
priority for me, as such classics are best to have on this format. More so,
Doomentia planned to issue “Engraved In Black” in very special way… and well,
now I hold this piece of vinyl in my hands and I can say that The Crypt
Records, which used to release the best pieces of vinyl records in recent
years, now has a strong competitor, as Doomentia did just absolutely fuckin
perfect and damn excellent work with “Engraved In Black”. Holding this album in
hands is just something fantastic.
The whole album is housed in heavy and thick
cardboard gatefold cover, which trust me is very impressive. Then you open it
and see the title: Acrostichon - “Engraved In Black” (Twentieth anniversary
edition)… there’s 24 pages booklet glued to the gatefold, so you turn the page
and there are some comments from the musicians of Acrostichon and from Paul
Speckmann. Cool! And then going through rest of the pages – there are many
archive photos, all the lyrics for the album, with each song having a comment,
which is something really cool, as this way you can know something more about
the whole album, like for example the fact that “Immolation of the Agnostic”
was the very first song written by Richard Schouten for Acrostichon (it also
opened most of the gigs, which Acrostichon played). Finally there are few
graphics in this booklet… and trust me, everyting really does look amazing. The
layout, graphics, font, which they used – everything looks absolutely damn
impressive.
For this and Memento Mori’s issue of “Engraved
In Black” Acrostichon changed the front cover – and I usually moan that I don’t
like when bands change the covers when they re-release their albums, as I think
that the artwork is also an essential part of the music. They’ve changed the
cover here, because – as Richard Schouten wrote – he simply wasn’t happy with
the original artwork. And yeah, I definitely agree that this new drawing he did
for “Engraved In Black” looks better and actually is damn scary hehe, but I
would like to see the original cover used somewhere in the middle of the
booklet as well (just like Centinex did for their “Subconscious Lobotomy”
reissue – they had new front cover, but the old one has been shown in the
booklet). So, it is a bit shame they haven’t reminded us the original artwork,
especially that it wasn’t so bad, really… Luckily this new front cover looks
great and vinyl edition of “Engraved In Black” contains a huge poster with it.
So, the whole vinyl, with its heavy 350 grams cover and booklet looks
astonishing. This vinyl is not cheap, but it is worth all money you’ll spend on
it. Doomentia did excellent job, in my opinion… and if I had something to moan
about then maybe the fact that “Engraved In Black” vinyl edition hasn’t got any
Acrostichon demos as bonus (all in all they appeared on the CD version). I
actually hoped that there will be a two LP set, with a couple of demos and EPs
on the second record as a bonus… Sadly, they haven’t done that, so maybe one
day they’ll issue a separate vinyl edition with Acrostichon demos for the
collectors? It would be cool.
OK, finally so I have this long sought after
vinyl edition of “Engraved In Black”… time to write something about the music,
right? Well, Acrostichon is a classic representative of Dutch death metal – and
Dutchs were all mainly about the atmosphere, about the heavy, massive death
metal, with a lot of doomy parts, but with some more grinding moments here and
there. And “Engraved In Black” is a classic example of this style. From the
beginning it will certainly remind you such bands as Asphyx, early Gorefest,
Mystic Charm and “Consuming Impulse” era Pestilence. On top of these bands, I
would mention some American acts, such as Master, Derketa and Mythic – and
obviously also Autopsy (so bands, which also had a strong doom influence in
their music) and finally in few moments I can also smell a Swedish odour! Think
of all these bands, listen to such songs as the mentioned before “Immolation of
the Agnostic” and you’ll instantly recognize what do I mean. This song alone
has really a strong bond to what Asphyx used to do. There really is a great,
slow, doomy, dark and obscure riff, great heavy and massive part, which will
crush your bones and flesh into one disgusting and stinking pile of carcass.
Unlike Asphyx I think that Acrostichon more often used faster parts, so the
music is more dynamic, with a lot of variety between all the songs and is also more
brutal, especially with Corinne’s vocals, which are just unearthly (maybe they
could have been better, but that woman seriously sounds angry and furious). But
seriously, “Engraved In Black” is just a prime old school death metal. I
worship such music, with its obscure and dark atmosphere, killer feeling
(something all these modern death metal albums are completely lacking), really
good, but still slightly raw production (here by Colin Richardson!)… It is
priceless for me, to have such albums and listen to them. The time flies, it has
already been almost 20 years since I have listened to “Engraved In Black” for
the first time, but I still find this LP as something utterly refreshing and I
am very enthusiastic to listen to it.
Standout tracks: “Immolation of the Agnostic”,
“Lost Remembrance”, “Relics”, “Engraved In Black”
Final rate: 90/100
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