### Acephalix: Deathless master

#### 16/07/12 || gk

Acephalix formed in 2007 as a crust punk band but over time morphed into a more death metal oriented beast. My first contact with the band came from the compilation released last year called “Interminable Night” which collected a couple of their demos together and showed the band evolving nicely from their crust punk roots to a more death metal oriented sound. It did enough for me to keep an eye for this band and I was quite looking forward to the promised full length.

So now, a year after that first taster, the band is back with its second full length and things are a lot more death metal on “Deathless master”. The whole Entombed, Dismember sound is very apparent and the band seems to particularly have great love for “Left hand path”. I have nothing against Entombed worship if it’s done well and for the most part Acephalix are simply competent in their worship. The opening trio of “Bastard self”, “Deathless master” and “Tomb of our fathers” made me want to listen to “Left hand path”, “Clandestine” and “IVth crusade” alternately but “on Wings…” is a really good song with a great opening riff and the band manage to build on this start for the entire length of the song. “Raw life” manages to mix the bands punk roots with some Autopsy inspired chaos. It works really well and is another pretty good song. “Blood of desire” also works well and the album has a pretty strong middle section. “Deathless master” closes with “The hunger” and the band manage to go out on a high although that stomping riff sounds ridiculously familiar, like they ripped it off from somewhere but I can’t really place it right now.

The one big problem I have with Acephalix is the vocals of Daniel Butler who also sings for the very promising Vastum. Here though, he sounds completely over the top and undecipherable. Like an even more phlegmy John Tardy but without the attitude. It gets a bit monotonous after a while and I was just wishing he would shut up around the time “The Hunger” came on.

I also wish this band would stop or at least tone down the old school Swedish death metal worship. The songs that really work are the ones that mix the band’s crusty roots with heavy, groovy death metal like Bolt Thrower and remind me of those American war crust bands like Stormcrow. There are some good songs on here but there are also some really boring songs. “Deathless master” is only 8 songs and 30 odd minutes but it’s still just a bit inconsistent for me to recommend wholeheartedly.

- Information
- Released: 2012
- Label: Southern Lord
- Website: Acephalix MySpace
- Band
- Daniel Butler: vocals
- Kyle House: guitars
- Luca: bass
- Dave Benson: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Bastard self
- 02. Deathless master
- 03. Tombs of our fathers
- 04. On wings…
- 05. Raw life
- 06. Blood of desire
- 07. In arms of nothing
- 08. The hunger