We are witnessing the genesis of Antikvlt.
The brainchild of Chris Marrok (Anomalie, ex-Selbstentleibung, ex-Tulsadoom, live for Agrypnie, Austere, Harakiri for the Sky…), the project also counts on Daniel Johansson (drums, Aspernamentum, ex-Wormwood) to unveil A Revelation of Intoxication, its first album, in collaboration with Immortal Frost Productions.
The album kicks off with What Love can’t Buy, a fairly aggressive first composition featuring the only guest, Hoest (Taake, live for Gorgoroth), who lends a rather wild Old School touch to the ambient dissonance. A certain melancholy emerges from the rhythm section and its piercing harmonics, but this is suddenly replaced by raw fury when No Rest for the Sacred takes over, incorporating mystical Latin choruses. This almost religious touch creates a real contrast with the frantic riffs, allowing us to catch our breath before the next surge, then Red Light Suicide offers us a rather macabre but heady groove. There’s a certain simplicity to the instrumental that accompanies Marrok‘s cries of despair, followed by a depressive touch before moving back into Black’n’Roll tones on Crossed Lines, a more energetic, catchy creation that immediately gets the skull shaking. The solo adds a melodic touch to the grimy sound, which continues on Serenade of Perversion with a rather similar approach, but the haunting tones take over again and transform the rhythm into a moody march where the screams guide us to a touch of lust before giving way to In Darkness They Trust, where the atmosphere radically changes. The musician develops here eerie, mysterious tones that eventually accelerate before the majestic final, but Psycho Circus immediately takes over with strange harmonics that soar above the heavier basis. Some moments are more jerky than others, but we notice that the vocalist gradually descends into madness, experimenting with plaintive tones before returning to screams of rage with In Dependency, which proves relatively oppressive and lets the vocal parts guide us through this dark fog. Towards the end of the album, Outsider precipitates us into a mixture of aggression and moody tones that constantly overlap and respond to each other, before gradually disappearing into nothingness.
Antikvlt‘s approach is always contrasted, either by violence or melancholy. And while each track on the album manages to have plenty of both, A Revelation of Intoxication is a true explosive vessel that just begs to be opened with the right mindset.
90/100