"The Devil's Work - British Extremists Raise The Black Metal Bar.
If you choose to view Satanism through Christian eyes, it's all too easy to reduce this often eminently sensible world view to a crass, childish cartoon. There have, after all, been countless bands that have been so desperate to be seen as evil that they have clumsily nailed their colours to the nearest inverted crucifix and made a mockery of themselves. Akercocke, on the other hand, have managed to let their music do the talking from day one, despite their sincerely satanic credentials. Those sharp-tailored suits certainly caught the eye when the band first surfaced, but once a dedicated ear was lent to what the band were actually doing, the truth soon emerged; this band has something fiercely original to contribute to the UK underground scene.
The band's first two albums (1999's Rape Of The Bastard Nazarene and 2001's Goat Of Mendes) were both extraordinary achievements; startling shards of eccentric creativity that belied the impecunious circumstances in which they were made. This time round, however, Akercocke have had enough time and financial clout to deliver the album they've been threatening to make all along. And it's absolutely fucking magnificent.
It's time to put all those long held prejudices about death and black metal aside. Yes, this band use elements of those often staid genres; there are inhuman, guttural vocals that owe a great deal to Suffocation's Effigy Of The Forgotten, vitriolic riffs that resound with the evil simplicity of Possessed's Seven Churches and enough Christ-slaughtering blastbeats from drummer David Gray to put even Morbid Angel's Pete Sandoval to shame.
However, it would be grossly inaccurate to say that there is anything predictable about Akercocke's sound. The jarring, discordant bleakness of early Killing Joke, the obtuse, haphazard angularity and warped grooves of Voivod, Rush's sprawling song structures and the deviant menace of early Bauhaus are all here in abundance, too.
The claustrophobic thrum and buzz of black-hearted electronica frequently rears its head, most notably on the final two, astonishing songs, Son of the Morning and Becoming the Adversary, and elsewhere there are countless moments of innovation that will dazzle and delight anyone lusting for a dash of the truly inspirational.
This is one of those rare occasion when musical allegiances are rendered irrelevant. Whatever kind of music you generally listen to, this is one album that simply demands to be heard. The Devil doesn't just have all the best tunes, he also has the best album of 2003."