Acephalous - Divine Purity
Rotten To The Core

file under Death metal

Menno: Before writing a review I first tend to do some research by taking a peek on the websites provided by the band and the label (if signed). Not every band has the decency to include a short bio and so internet can be a useful source of information. It's a pity that some bands absolutely lack in information. The only things I know about Acephalous are the fact that they are Belgian and their new CD is entitled 'Divine Purity'.

Since their music is the only thing I've got I'm pumping up the volume. This is Acephalous' debut record and thus I'm unaware of any previously released demo-material and especially how their demo's might have sounded since 'Divine Purity' simply sounds awful (production-wise). I'm guessing the reason is that Rotten to the Core-records has no budget whatsoever but it would be safe to assume that the fact that Kenneth Keyser (vocals/guitar) recorded everything at home has something to do with it as well. True, it was mastered in a studio but I have to say I've got better sounding demo's lying around. The use of a drumcomputer doesn't really help the professionalism but I'm not gonna bitch about that since good drummers are hard to find (and are complete assholes, haha).

I don't have to be very thorough about Acephalous' music; a fresh but solid mix of melodic death metal interchanged with sharp black metal riffing. Not bad at all but extremely brutal it's not. Singer Kenneth uses a grunt as well as a scream (which sounds way more powerful). As said before; not bad but try to be a bit more professional the next time!

Rating: 65/100 (details)

http://www.myspace.com/666acephalous

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