RAPE OF THE BASTARD NAZARENE

AKERCOCKE emerged on the London extreme metal scene in 1997 formed by vocalist / guitarist Jason Mendonça and drummer David Gray who had both previously played in the black metal band Salem Orchid. After recruiting guitarist Paul Scanian, keyboardist Martin Bonsoir and bassist Peter Theobalds, the bizarrely named AKERCOCKE commenced to create some of the wildest and craziest extreme metal of the entire 90s and with the release of its debut RAPE OF THE BASTARD NAZARENE, many extremophile metalheads certainly took notice! While the 90s had been the decade of death metal, black metal and the splintering off of many newly designated subgenres, AKERCOCKE was unusual in how it took aspects of many styles of metal and non-metal alike and forged a completely new stylistic approach.

Deemed as one of the best British debut albums ever released by Terrorizer magazine, AKERCOCKE hit the scene and immediately stood out for its erratic stage presence, unorthodox musical style and over-the-top celebration of everything Satanic and psycho-sexual. In this regard the band took the ethos of the early 70s band Black Widow where it did away with any subtitles and ambiguity and simply announced in full celebratory glee that Christianity was bad and everything Satan or Lucifer was to be revered. Perhaps a little adolescent in approach but adds a humorous element to an otherwise extremely intense delivery of death metal growls that mixed grindcore, black metal, post-punk and a touch of progressive rock.

This debut is quite different than the more progressive albums that followed. RAPE OF THE BASTARD NAZARENE was the band's gritty grimy DIY self-released album that featured a muddy production and a give no [%*!#]s attitude about how to deliver a stream of Satanic extreme metal compositions and crazy spoken word narratives that pop up throughout the album's original 33 minute plus run. After the short declaration of two girls denouncing all things Christian and declaring only Satan and Lucifer as the true way, the album starts off with a bizarre metal style that is really apparent what exactly it is. It sounds like death metal with growly vocals, blastbeat drumming ferocity, speedfest riffing and the intensity of an old school death metal but it also features a buzzing guitar sound, call and response female vocals backing up the growly leads and an unorthodox sort of grindcore meets post-punk compositional style.

The tracks retain a rather industrial style as if Killing Joke were the basis of the rhythms while the death metal handled the tones, timbres and delivery system. The track "Marguerite & Gretchen" jumps into a strange progressive metal style with clean vocals and crazy time signatures along with varying musical motifs that find the clean vocals and the growly ones having a full fledged duet along with female singers as the backups. The album is regularly interpreted by various intermissions that reaffirm their allegiance to Satan such as the 2-minute "Conjuration" which makes the entire album feel as if it was made by a Satanic cult. In this regard it reminds me of those Father Yod and his Ya Ho Wa 13 projects from the 70s were the cult members participated in chanting and other subordinate musical contributions.

I guess the best term to describe this would be avant-blackened death metal but really the debut by AKERCOCKE is unique even by the band's own standards. It's like the ferocious old school death metal of Obituary collided with the Luciferian first wave black metal of Venom with the giddiness of 70s Black Widow, the grind aspects of Pig Destroyer along with some prog technicalities and dark ambient rituals. The album doesn't seem to get a lot of love in the greater AKERCOCKE canon but it's actually one of my favorites. It's so bizarre and unapologetically evil as [%*!#] that it becomes endearing in a very morbid twisted way! Best of all the album is a testament to the creative spirit of a newbie band spewing its venom on the world's stage. Add to that the instrumental interplay is excellent and the juxtaposition of styles and interludes makes the entire thing come off as a stage performance of some kind. While the production is the main complaint on this one, personally i find it makes the underground cult feel more authentic. To me this is an excellent slice of crazy extreme metal from the 90s.

"Rape of the Bastard Nazarene" is the debut full-length studio album by UK, London based death Metal act Akercocke. The album was released through Goat of Mendes in December 1999. Akercocke formed in 1997 and released a demo in 1998. Lead vocalist/guitarist Jason Mendonça and drummer David Gray had worked together in Salem Orchid, and after that act disbanded opted to continue working together and subsequently formed Akercocke.

Stylistically the material on "Rape of the Bastard Nazarene" is blasphemous/dark philosophical/demonic erotic themed death metal, with both deathgrind, black metal, and progressive metal leanings. Sometimes it´s blasting and murky deathgrind reminding me of the early Carcass recordings, and sometimes the music is much more sophisticated and technical. A track like "Marguerite & Gretchen" is an example of the latter style. It´s a relatively complex track, featuring clean male vocals and choirs with female vocals, displaying the band´s progressive side (and lyrics that are delightfully naughty telling the story of a demonic ménage à trois). The whole thing reeks a morbid occult atmosphere (which is further enhanced by the many chanting sections on the album), and although the raw and unpolished production job isn´t always a strength (some of the details of the music drown in the mix), the overall dark and gloomy atmosphere of the release prospers from it.

One of the great assets of "Rape of the Bastard Nazarene" is the high level musicianship. Akercocke are a well playing band and the vocals are well performed and varied, ranging from deep death metal growling, to higher pitched aggressive screams, to clean male vocals (and a few sections with female choirs as mentioned above). The relatively diverse use of vocal styles has great impact on Akercocke´s sound, the intensity of their music, and also for the variation of the material.

Upon conclusion "Rape of the Bastard Nazarene" is a solid release and a good quality debut album by Akercocke. They establish right away that there is something different about them and that they aren´t afraid to experiment and challenge their audience. It´s not a perfect release but certainly a great one and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).