Acrania, a London based brutal "deathcore" band is now releasing their first full-length album via Unique Leader. I can hear it now, “DEATHCORE…?”–(clicks on next page). Just wait, before you leave, please remember that in every 100 deathcore bands, there is at least one good one. If you're the person who hates all deathcore, or other sub genres of metal, suck it up… one cannot make a cake without flour.
While listening to The Beginning of the End, Acrania's EP brought vivid memories of Job For A Cowboy's EP Doom. Recall how deathcore Doom was? Heavy breakdowns, pig squeals, and more heavy breakdowns. Job For A Cowboy's following album Genesis was much better. In fact, some would say it's 100 strides better than Doom. It's safe to say that The Beginning of the End is to Doom, as Totalitary Dystopia is to Genesis. Unfortunately though, Acrania's first full length could only measure 70 strides better than their debut EP, but enough with the comparisons.
What does this four piece band have going for them that sets them apart from this already abundant genre? This answer can be summed up with a few distinctions, but it would be heresy to not speak of the vocals as the most skull cracking, turbine mutilating, flesh evaporating force that has been heard in some time. In fact, the reason "Survival Sequence" is the worst track on the album is because it’s instrumental. Luke Griffin puts in some serious relentless work the entire length of this album (excluding "Survival Sequence"). At some points, it’s discernible to hear the blood gurgling down Luke's throat as his guttural lacerations spew blood during intense intervals. Pig squeals, screeching highs, demon lows, rapid fire spitting, are all impressive and impossible to ignore. Moving on to the bass, it's unique enough to notice and complements the surrounding segments, but could use some additional enhancing.
The focused sound and mood of this album stand out as pillars of consistency. Well constructed songs such as "Festering With Dishonesty" and "Susceptible To Retinal Reprogrammability" are excellent examples of this attribute.
As far as growing pains, it seems Acrania's 70 steps forward lacks the progression as well as being technical enough to survive in such a make-it-or-break-it genre. Settling with the simple "core" sound too often throughout the album is a stagnant approach. The heavy guitars get a little boring playing the same chords. The drums follow close behind in lacking almost all creativity. One can only mask the simplicity of the music with terrific vocals for so long. Steady tempo, chug fest sections, and breakdowns sometimes bring back bad memories of Years Spent Cold. Fear not though, Acrania is not some cheap "tough guy" facade with gang chants telling you to f*ck your friends and family. Although if they don't continue to take steps forward on future releases there's no telling what's possible.
After many listens, it's clear Acrania knows how to jam and bring the heavy music, but will this more rudimentary method survive the test of time? Will Acrania continue to evolve as Job For A Cowboy did and stand on the heads of its predecessors to be the 1 in the 100 "deathcore" bands that are actually good?
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