ACOD - Cryptic Curse EP (2023)

ACOD's Fourth Reign Over Opacities and Beyond really put the French band on the map for me last year, an exposition of black and death metal and melody unafraid to do serve its songs above else. Just a few months after that, the band has returned with a shorter release with but three tracks, presumably continuing their apocalyptic and apocryphal tirade, and that is precisely what Cryptic Curse does. As with the last release, this is semi-symphonic, massively produced black metal as a base, but not afraid to adopt more death metal riffing structures, growls, even little tints of thrash and Gothic metal to round it all out. You can bet that around every corner of the 5-6 minute tracks you're going to find some atmosphere, melody and so forth, and while it's rarely so catchy you'd die for it, the material is constantly engaging and larger than life.

It's hard to describe...say a midpoint between Italy's Stormlord and Greece's Septic Flesh, metal that won't fail to use any tools at its disposal to sound enormous. The keys and choir-tones take this to that otherworldly level of escape, and the guitars and drums are massive and busy without any need for pointless wanking and showing off. They don't always play fast, but usually even the more steady pieces like the title track are muscled up with some double kick drum and fills that add some momentum while it strides towards that speedier, ethereal bridge. In the end, this material is right on the level with the last album, and if you found yourself enjoying that, you shouldn't feel different here. I wouldn't say it hits quite the memorable moments you'll find there, but for a band that embraces such enormous studio standards and an all-encompassing sound, they certainly keep your attention for these 17 minutes. If you dig Septic Flesh, Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, or that last Necromantia album it's worth hearing this and Fourth Reign.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://acod.bandcamp.com/album/cryptic-curse

ACOD - Fourth Reign Over Opacities and Beyond (2022)

Occasionally a record will come along with so much obvious effort and variation put into it that it feels like the band really planned out some veritable tour de force, and such is the case for ACOD's latest opus Fourth Reign Over Opacities and Beyond. Ostensibly an admixture of black, death and thrash metal, they've also got no opposition to tossing in symphonic sequences, narrative samples, or more accessible riffs and melodies than you might expect given their track record. The bottom line is that they've crafted this comprehensive album in which anything can go as long as it services the songwriting, and I've quite enjoyed the experience for all that it draws upon, and the fact that it defies any sort of easy predictability while not swinging too far outside the box.

I'd almost call the orchestral cinematics here 'graceful' in how they adhere to the mightier, pummeling riff-work, but ACOD never makes the mistakes of letting them take over the mix. Listening through a great tune like "Genus Vacuitatis", the guitars are still the stars of the show, providing the most exciting of material, with the extras just complementing it. There's also a pretty wide range of riffs found here, from stuff that reminded me of veterans from Rotting Christ to Moonspell to Samael. No track passes without some successful attempt to hook you, and then they can still get fairly evil and brutal sounding when the need takes them, whether they are flirting with their black or death metal sides. The bass playing is good and thick, simple where it needs to be, like below the glorious melodies throughout "Sulfur Winds Ritual", and the drums are exactly where they need to be, with loads of fills and different beats plastered all over the pieces that reflect their diversity. There's that same sort of Romantic darkness to this record that you probably felt through a lot of the 90s, not that this turns into some Gothic drip-fest.

As for the symphonics themselves, they are quite excellent, whether composed solely on their own in the intro piece "Sur d'anciens chemins...", the eerie interlude "Infernet's Path", or sprinkled throughout the meatier metal cuts. If you're into some of the vintage works of groups like Hollenthon or Therion then you're going to enjoy their use here, and in fact I wouldn't mind just hearing an entire album of just that. Sweeping, bombastic, with choirs to good effect and great production balance against the harder instruments. The vocals are a leaden black rasp with some character to it that can attain a more brutal edge when they strike a more distinctly death metal riff, although there are some spoken word parts and a few sections with backup layered vocals. All of this contributes to a 51+ minute album unlike most others you will hear this year, easy to recommend to a wide swath of fans into melodic black or death metal, Gothic/black, etc, from the groups I listed here to Dimmu Borgir or Stormlord.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://acod.bandcamp.com/