"Satànic" is their first full lenght album in 7 years, released by BlackSeed Productions. With a better production (by Javier Félez at Moontower Studios) but their classic sound, Akerbeltz presents a new album mixing raw and somewhat chaotic parts with really obscure and epic passages.
Names as Bathory, Immortal or Inquisition appears trying to describe their music, but always with their own Akerbeltz trademark sound since their first recording 20 years ago! Limited edition of 300 copies in 12" black vinyl with printed inner envelope.
Now more than 20 years into a varied musical career, Spain’s Akerbeltz has released more than a half-dozen demos and splits as well as five albums under the name shared by its sole creator. The sixth full-length, Satanic, is now set for a June 2nd release by the Spanish label BlackSeed Productions. As a sign of what the new album holds in store, today we present a stream of the second track in its running order, “A Deed Without A Name“. Akerbeltz (the musician) has participated in a variety of other musical projects since 1989, not all of them in the vein of black metal. Among other endeavors, he has played guitar for Countess, Beheaded Lamb, and Harridan; appeared singing and playing drums in one song of a Sale Freux album; performed vocals for a Winter Frost demo; and has been the drummer for Körgull The Exterminator since the band’s inception. But Akerbeltz (the band) has been his oldest and longest-running project. “A Deed Without A Name” pulses with unholy energy and primal drive. It’s spare and stripped-down to a black core rather than elaborate or labyrinthine, propelled by a pneumatic drum-and-cymbal rhythm and swirling with dismal, disorienting chords, broken by a bout of freakish and frenzied soloing, by a change in the rhythm to an almost bouncing lope, and by a morphing of the melody to something resembling an infernal fanfare. Throughout, Akerbeltz discharges the lyrics in a nasty, abrading croak that claws at the listener’s throat. It’s the kind of song that awakens primitive impulses, and not kindly ones, evoking images of bestial lust and sacrificial rites. Or maybe you’ll imagine something else — there’s only one way to find out. Below we present the stream of “A Deed Without A Name“, and if you let the player continue to run after that track ends, you’ll also be able to hear the previously released track “Beyond the Reflections“.
Though the name isn't entirely common in the underground, Akerbeltz has been active since 1996. In its early incarnation, it was a husband and wife duo; Akerbeltz himself and Lilith. However, sometime after 2001's full-length, Tabellae Defixionum, Akerbeltz decided to go at the endeavor alone. Believe it or not, Satànic is the seventh fully fleshed out offering that the solo project has produced, but it's the first one that has come about through BlackSeed Productions.
The majority of the songs on Satànic rely heavily on chaotic compositions that are in the vein of true old school black metal. "Red Dragon", "A Deed Without a Name", and "Ye Olde Hag" all scratch and claw their way inside your cranium with their seemingly helter-skelter style. On the other hand, there is also a lot of Countess-reminiscent orthodoxy at play; "The Crypt" and "Ludum Mortis" being the heavy hitters of this style. These two tracks feature riffs and tremolo picking that's reliant on distinctive catchy hooks, ear-pleasing solos, and drum patterns that compliment it all and bring it together.
Akerbeltz's strong, shrill black metal vocal style rings through the tracks with an overwhelming presence. It's deeply committed to a considerable amount of reverb, which further pushes the raw, occult vibes of the material. There are clearly different production values that separate the vocals from the instruments, the latter of which comes across a lot more straightforward and without any effects aside from standard treble-heavy distortion tones.
Where the guitar comes in with tons of treble, the bass and drums keep the material grounded with constant bassline assaults that stand out prominently. The drumming, in particular, is masterful, and it's filled with tons of double bass kicks and speedy hi-hat taps. Most of the blast beat goodness is saved for the end of Satànic, "Chaos" is just as its namesake describes; it's filled with anarchic blast beats and tremolo riffs, while still being sprinkled with small spurts of orthodoxy throughout it for good measure.
Truly, Satànic is one of the more unique and thoughtful black metal releases to come about in a number of years. Rather than attempting to resurrect the gods of old, Akerbeltz has managed to infuse his music with two types of traditional black metal and still maintain his own personal presence amongst the chaos. Simply put, it's a true black metal release with no bullshit attached; no synthesizers, no faux downgraded production, and no unnecessary features. If you were to tell me this was released in the '80s, I'd believe you, and I'd wonder why Akerbeltz wasn't more popular than Mayhem.
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