Acephalix breathe life into fetid, sepulchral death with crust punk beats and chest-bursting rage. Deathless Master is a subtle refinement of the ripping, rupturous sound the band unleashed last year with Interminable Night. Rhythmic and vocal vehemence are still the band’s raison d'être, but the heaving riffage is elevated in both quality and clarity on Deathless Master.
Acephalix crush with comfort at any velocity, dropping infectious riffs to D-Beats and blasts alike. The drumming is purely superlative; Dave Benson is willing to lay back and let it swing, allowing a riff to slip up in the muck, to play out a long noose of doom or to chug up bit of subsonic thrash. The guitars speak only in tongues of primal death, occasionally spewing a dissonant anti-melody or letting loose a wild, keening lead. The guitar tones are satisfying gouts of gurgling darkness, illuminated by the requisite Sunlight sounding distortion.
The vocals are possessed of a ruthless, bestial ferocity. Intentions are made gloriously and succinctly clear when we’re informed that “Birth, Life, Death, Rot; I live raw. Love life, No laws; I live raw.” The puerile exhortations erupt in perfect syncopation with the band’s rampaging cadence; hold on tight to your humanity.
Acephalix have achieved an effortless victory over death itself. Deathless Master is a massive, roaring and inexorable wave of obliteration; I’m compelled to revel repeatedly in its spell. “A sea of death surrounds us. We’re islands apart. Impossibly connected, we’re one in the dark.”
8.7/10
Deathless Master is out now on Southern Lord Records.
