Year of release: 2019
Label: Osmose Productions
Rating: 8,4 / 10
Before you is a contender for the title of one of the best albums of the year in religious Black Metal subdivision. AKROTHEISM is a well known band for owners and customers of underground distros: its debut album was released on Odium Records, it was actively traded around the world. The new one was released on Osmose Productions, and this, I must say, is a great success for the French giant.
AKROTHEISM work in the style of the leading masters of the occult direction of Black Metal - NIGHTBRINGER, ACHERONTAS (the leader of the latter performed back-vocals on the album) and so on. This is a metal of epic proportions, incredibly rich and multifaceted, downright forcing the listener to absorb the entire album from start to finish. One of the buyers of the release on Bandcamp expressed its main feature perfectly in his review: the filling of the “Law of Seven Deaths” sometimes just slashes over the edge, but the elements that make up long compositions are very easy to digest. There are no unconventional / experimental solutions here (you won't call experimental those dissonant riffs that have long become part of the ordinary). But these small strokes draw huge canvases, bursting with dark energy.
“Law of Seven Deaths” is primarily Black Metal. The Greeks almost do not chant the mantras at the altar and do not put the listener to sleep with the sounds of the ambient, making their way through the curtain of smoke. Even during periods of least activity, where all the sound space is occupied by slow riffs and ritual vocals, the album sounds extremely heavy. However, I like most of all those segments where AKROTHEISM interpret traditional high-speed Greek blasting a la ROTTING CHRIST very interestingly: the guitar-drum “southern” attack is filled with such terrible darkness that it immediately takes you somewhere to the interstellar spaces. “Law of Seven Deaths” manages to maintain this dark aura from beginning to end, despite the abundance of musical moods. The only thing that can push the listener away is a very indistinct sound that eats up a good third of the material. I do not argue, it is different from the work of colleagues in the scene, preferring sharpness and distinctiveness... but they, after all, choose this sound for a reason. Albums with so many nuances are simply obliged to be legible, otherwise there is a risk of burying the whole idea under a layer of sound wool. Unfortunately, Greeks' appeal to the fashionable Icelandic studio did not bring a good result. Let the Icelanders do their hipster murkiness at home, and with a genuine occult Black Metal, you should go to the Swedes.
English (UK) 
Крыўская