French outfit Autokrator follows up the acclaimed 2018” Hammer of the Heretics” with the unrelenting Persecution.
Autokrator doesn’t just play brutal death metal for shock and awe, they have intent, intelligence, and meaning. It is savage and barbaric in its execution.
Couple that with exemplary musicianship, especially that of drummer Kevin Paradis and you have a precise intense musical killing machine that leaves you reeling.
Persecution, all 34 horrific minutes of it is not a mindless assault.
It is a thematic journey of man’s savagery and quests for power. Its Roman ancestry was visited and updated. Vocals lines and drum patterns are delivered with primal military precision in particular the brilliant ‘Caesar Nerva Traianus’ with its dynamics and bought its natural conclusion in ‘Apocalypsis’. Its unsettling and intense force of nature unleashed, fury unfurled and left unchecked.
‘De Gloria Martyrum Et Confessorum’, and the suitably epic ‘Antechristus’’are journeys of terror and incredible speed. David Bailey’s tortured throat is the anchor amongst the madness, the verbal descriptor of the horrors within, the voice of man’s primitive violent nature, and the riffing on ‘Antechristus’’ is as precise and memorable as the chaotic solos that accompany it.
To be listened to as whole oppressive bodywork. Persecution is an album that has a definitive beginning middle and end. Some bands say they play brutal, technical blackened death metal.
Autokrator defines this style with a performance of next-level musicianship, coherence, and pure brutality.
Autokrator: Facebook
Release Year: 2021
Label: Krucyator Productions
Category: Album
Country: France
Reviewed by Sparky