Entry 1474 - Acathexis - Immerse

Style: atmospheric black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: raw intense emotions

Thoughts: Acathexis debut album is something of a hidden gem. It was four tracks of intense black metal that I had never heard anyone talk about before and I found for a very reasonable price in a bargain bin. It impressed me so much that I picked up the second album - Immerse - without listening to it.

Immerse picks right up where the self titled album left off. Four more tracks of highly intense atmospheric black metal with hints of melody. This very well could be the second LP of the first album, they are that similar. Sometimes it's hard to believe that there are six years separating these two efforts.

The core of Immerse is it's atmosphere and riffs. The atmosphere throughout the entire album is so thick that you can cut it with a knife. It drapes over the music in such a way that a complete "wall of sound" effect is achieved in nearly every moment of the album. The riffs play a central part to this.

There are two guitars at play in nearly every riff. The way that they play off of each other works so well for the music in a couple of ways. The first being that they are the primary agent of the atmosphere. The second is the intensity. These riffs are ready to rip your face off with the speed and ferocity that they are played with. They simply have no regard for human life and are content to live in their violence irregardless of the consequences. 

The rest of the music matches the intensity of the guitars. The drums blast with a speed a precision not often seen. They match the intensity of the guitar riffs nearly perfectly; knowing when to pull back slightly and when to ramp up the speed to further the violence of the guitars. 

The vocals are - you guessed it - intense. They again fit the scope of the music to near perfection. For a majority of the album they are a mid ranged howl/growl that has a huge sense of longing and a deep sense of loss in the delivery. To compliment the mids there are some high screeches and low growls to accent particularly fervent moments of t he music. 

Immerse is exactly what I wanted out of this band. A direct continuation of their debut record... and they delivered in spades. I don't have many bands that sound like this in my collection so I anticipate that I'll be revisiting this when I need some black metal that breeds violence.