Those Who Have Risen

I have to say that like Acheron a lot, their music always gives me a great kick in the head and I seriously think that they belong to the best US death / black metal bands ever. There are two important things, which you should always remember about concerning Acheron: firstly, it is their satanic concept, which Vincent Crowley (Acheron leader) has been faithful to ever since the inception of his legendary act. Secondly, Acheron music is exceptional. From their very first demo (“Messe Noir”), 7”EP (“Alla Xul”) and debut LP (“Rites of the Black Mass” from 1992) you could hear that they created unique and recognizable death / black metal style and sound. And have kept it alive for nearly three decades now. "Those Who Have Risen” is Acheron’s fifth full length album. And obviously from the very first seconds of the opening anthem “Lifeforce (The Blood)” you recognize that it is THIS band, not something else. There's the characteristic riffage, vocals of Crowley and the eerie, evil atmosphere, which is present on every Acheron record.

"Those Who Have Risen” is a natural follower to all previous Acheron recordings, but to previous album “Antigod - Antichrist” especially. There's similar approach on these two albums, with music strongly based on slow paced, heavy, almost hypnotizing riffage, which is accompanied by the always-present keyboards. But while “Antigod...” had few more up-tempo parts, "Those Who Have Risen” is solely focused on that slower playing. Which is good, because when you hear these memorable riffs with dark, vicious sound of keyboard, it quickly gives cold, eerie feeling. More sinister than ever before. Because the music is quite simplistic, speaking of the song structure and riffage, the music is even more memorable and heavy, so it should hook you up pretty fast. Especially the beginning of the record, with such glorious tracks as “Lifeforce (The Blood)”, “Hekal Tiamat” and “Necromanteion Communion”. OK, I do admit that towards its end "Those Who Have Risen” may seem a bit monotonous, because the tempo never changes, so songs are pretty similar to each other. But I still like it a lot. I think that Crowley has great gift to compose great, vicious riffs and his vocals are always great. Besides, it seems like from the musical point of view "Those Who Have Risen” is one of the better, if not the best, recorded material from this band. Great musicianship, with killer drumming of Tony Laureano and two skilled guitarists, who played some very good leads like in “Hekal Tiamat”. So, for me personally "Those Who Have Risen” is definitely better album that “Antigod - Antichrist”. It may even be Acheron’s best, but that’s a hard choice, especially when confronted with “Rites of the Black Mass” or “Lex Talionis”.

These two albums sounded harsher, more obscure. And had all these intros, to increase the evil, satanic, blasphemous aura of the music. "Those Who Have Risen” has no intros between songs (which is maybe due to different concept of the record, which here is based on the vampirism) and is better produced. But that’s natural progression, I guess, to try something different. So, even if it can get a bit monotonous and too long, it is just super good record.

I am happy that Secret Doctrines released a fantastic vinyl version of this album – definitely the best looking Acheron LP I have! Great gatefold cover, lots of photographs (tits, yes!), poster, very, very good quality of both artwork and the music... The only minus is that it’s not a complete album, as for some reason they decided to skip the intro “Intro: Nosferatu Prelude” and the spoken backwards outro. That’s a fuckin shame, I hate, when they cut the record! But it’s great quality vinyl anyway, so it’s a must to have in collection.

Standout tracks: “Lifeforce (The Blood)”, “Hekal Tiamat”, “Necromanteion Communion”
Verdict: 80/100

On this album Acheron continue on the path they started walking with “Anti-God, Anti-Christ”. That means: simple mid-tempo atmospheric death metal with some doomy touches. “Those Who Have Risen” is the first Acheron album not to feature any intros between the songs, something that already had become a tradition for this band. Only the intro “Nosferatu Prelude” is a keyboard piece (and too long in my opinion, clocking in at almost six minutes). The keyboards are used almost constantly on every song throughout the album. Most of the time they simply follow the guitar riffs and create a backdrop for the rest of the music.

Just like “Anti-God, Anti-Christ”, this album was recorded at Audio Lab Studios and I’m sad to say that the result again isn’t much to my taste. The guitars are too thin and down in the mix (why?) and also otherwise the production lacks punch to some degree. Things would’ve sounded a lot better with a heavier guitar sound and the guitars more upfront in the mix. Also the complete lack of fast parts is something that I think lessens the impact of the music. The old Acheron stuff always contained some fast thrashy parts which contrasted the slow parts and made their music very enjoyable despite its simplicity.

On this album every song sounds pretty similar to the next: simple heavy riffs, pretty much the same tempo in every song and nearly ever-present synths. On the previous album Acheron started to write longer tracks than before and this development continues on “Those Who Have Risen”. The idea of longer songs doesn’t always work though, because I occasionally feel a bit bored by the material. I don’t think that the band always had enough ideas and riffs for such long songs. Cutting the tracks down by a few minutes would’ve been a good idea. Despite these shortcomings “Those Who Have Risen” is a decent and quite solid album as a whole. The “problem” is that there’s nothing that grabs your attention immediately, you have to let the music grow on you before it opens up. There are no hit songs and no riffs that immediately make you want to headbang. The best tracks here are “Lifeforce (the Blood)”, “Hekal Tiamat”, “Necromanteion Communion” and “Out of Body”, all of which have good flow to them despite not being very varied and manage to avoid the boredom trap that some other tracks on this album fall prey to. The four tracks I mentioned work very well even without any fast parts and sound very dark.

Michael Estes’ solos on this album are good, the guy’s a shredder, but at the same time I have to repeat what I said in my review of “Lex Talionis”: I feel that these kinds of solos are too refined for a band like Acheron. However, this is more of a minor complaint, some people love these types of solos. I usually do so as well but they just don’t fit every band in my opinion. The lyrics on this album aren’t directly Satanic as they used to be before, this time the lyrical concept deals with vampirism, more specifically The Temple of the Vampire.

Acheron fans have probably checked this album out already, if not, keep in mind that this album isn’t as aggressive as e.g. “Rites of the Black Mass” and “Lex Talionis”. Even if I don’t think this is a bad album per se, I still like the early Acheron albums better, as they were more in-your-face and extreme. The inclusion of some fast parts in the songs, varying the arrangements a bit more and a better production are all factors that would have made “Those Who Have Risen” better than it is now.