Akercocke’s legacy will live on for a long time, not least due to a groundbreaking take on black/death metal and a unique aesthetic.
Still spoken about with reverence, it’s a shame that the Satanic gents seemed to slowly fade away rather than burn out, with no official statement of dissolution at the time.
For those who are curious as to where they would have gone next, there’s no need to look further than The Antichrist Imperium. They feature ex-members of the aforementioned brigade – guitarist Matt Wilcox, drummer David Gray and then-keyboardist Sam Loynes, plus The Bezerker frontman Sam Bean – and here assemble lost cuts of material and layer modern frequencies over songs that may never have seen the light of day. Sams Loynes and Beans’ vocals are dredged from a sensual hell, and the two push against each other to create landscapes of horror and occasional beauty. Elegy begins the record on such moments, with harsh guitars and drums dropping into gorgeous sweeps of sound to give these older tracks a nuanced, polished feel that allows the songs to breathe and pulse with the dastardly malevolence they deserve.
