Acephalix - Deathless Master
Southern Lord
Death Metal
8 songs (30:07)
Release year: 2012
Southern Lord
Reviewed by Koeppe

Standard genealogies of metal place punk’s influence as being most explicitly present in the camp of thrash metal and how it took on the form of crossover and what not. To my knowledge, death metal and punk very rarely converge except for in the heavier hardcore acts which fall more in line with grindcore than death metal. Even black metal, in the most recent of Darkthrone albums, is bearing witness to its punk roots. Acephalix, however, might just bridge the gap between the bleak brutality of death metal and the often times upbeat pace of punk metal. That doesn’t mean this death metal will lead you to crack a smile, but it might just get you headbanging once again if your patience for the genre has grown thin.

All that being said, Acephalix wear their punk influences on their crusty sleeves. The guys come roaring out of the gates playing a sped up version of the traditional mid-pace grooving Swedish death metal with thick riffs over top the d-beat rhythm. I can’t recall the drums ever becoming a blasting frenzy, more inclined to simply setting the speed of the track. Each track varies from a breakneck race to the end or slowed down to a grinding halt wherein Acephalix takes the opportunity to crush their listeners with their surprisingly adept atmospheric attempts. These guys are simply taking the formula, laid out by classic acts like Grave, Entombed, Bolt Thrower, etc., and running with it. This album won’t top anything those folks put out, but damn they put out a good effort attempting to do so. Each track contains a crushing riff. The band is exceptionally impressive in their ability to create new riffs. Nearly all of the tracks have awesome breakdowns, with classic buzzsaw solos. It’s really anything you could ever want from a band aspiring to mimic the early Swedish scene.

It seems as if I review a new Southern Lord band every other week. That might be because it is true. Southern Lord has worked hard on finding talented crust bands, truly signing the cream of the crop in a genre that is rife with pretenders. Acephalix may not be the best of the bunch. That however isn’t because they don’t write badass riffs, because there are plenty of those contained herein to get you thrashing. It just seems as if Southern Lord has truly rounded up such great bands that this decent band might be overshadowed, if not given a legitimate chance. I’ll have to admit that I almost prefer the collection of demos, Interminable Night, that they had released prior to this album. In those early demos, they were much more varied and less apt to simply shift into classic Swedish death metal mode, which isn’t a bad thing, but isn’t an unique thing. Acephalix was doing something more interesting, albeit not better perhaps, when their crust and d-beat influences were at the fore.

Killing Songs :
Raw Life, In Arms of Nothing, Deathless Master
Koeppe quoted 69 / 100
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