Acrybia: Jesus Bloody Jesus

If you like your music slower and heavier than the Giant Galapagos Tortoise, then Polish doom metal band Acrybia should be your thing. Jesus Bloody Jesus, Acrybia's most recent full-length release, is around 60 minutes of entrancing and unnerving material that is so incredibly sluggish, it makes even the earliest Cathedral releases sound like punk rock.

The band kicks things off with the cool title track… – although, of course, due to the ultra-slow nature of Acrybia's music, the phrase "kicks off" is least appropriate here, so let me rephrase: "They slowly rise from the grave with the cool title track and then things get yet weirder (take the surprising W.A.S.P. cover "Sleeping in the Fire"!), more poetic ("Padlina" is based on a poem by Charles Baudelaire) and truly epic (the final, horror-atmosphere inducing "As the Story Ends" which lasts over 20 minutes). But the record doesn't only impress with the mixture of slowness and heaviness, as there are numerous minute particulars to savor here, too, like the bone-chilling vocal effects in "Valley of Doom" or the creepily effective sounds of buzzing flies added at the end of "Padlina". The guitars are fine throughout the whole record, as well, but I must say I do have some issues with some of the vocal performances here; while they work fine when used to build the hellish atmosphere, like in "Jesus Bloody Jesus" or "Padlina", they tend to disappoint whenever you expect them to carry melody, like in W.A.S.P.'s "Sleeping in the Fire".

This last issue aside, Acrybia's latest is a strong, highly involving collection of quality doom metal tracks that are not trying to seduce the listener with catchy choruses or slick sound. This is music straight from the rotten mouth of the living dead – love it or don't go anywhere near it!

Tracklist:
1. Jesus Bloody Jesus
2. Valley of Doom
3. Sleeping in the Fire (W.A.S.P. cover)
4. Padlina (by Charles Baudelaire)
5. Vulerant Omnes
6. As the Story Ends

Added: March 15th 2013
Reviewer: Bartek Paszylk
Score:
Related Link: Band MySpace Page
Hits: 1733
Language: english

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