ACRIMONIOUS — Sunyata (review)

ACRIMONIOUS — Sunyata album cover Album · 2012 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Time Signature
The heavy wedjat...

Genre: black metal

Described as a rock-influenced black metal release, Acrimonious' "Sunyata" promises to be different from your run-of-the-mill black metal release. And, although I do not really hear any direct rock music influences as such, "Sunyata" definitely is not your average black metal album. The unusually colorful and Hinduistically oriented artwork should be an indicator of this.

There are, of course, several more standard black metal elements on the album; the obligatory tremolo-picking-and-blastbeating is there, as is the intensity of dissonant chords. So, black metal fans should be satisfied. However, and this may in reality be what is meant by "rock-inspired", the album has been given a healthy dose of more accessible types heavy metal in the sense that several tracks on the album feature riff-driven and melodic passages, some of which are thrashy and some of which have more in common with traditional heavy metal than with black metal.

Moreover, there is a considerable presence of death metal on the album, but not to the extent that I would say that we are dealing with blackened death metal - it is more a kind of deathened black metal, if you wish. Apart from certain types of riffage, a ubiquitous death metal element on this album is the vocals which are closer to death grunts than black metal screams.

For my money, "Sunyata" is a very well put together album which, while drawing on various other types of metal, stays true to the band's black metal roots. If you like black metal that goes beyond mere black metal, then chances are that you will like this release.
Share this review

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Rise of the Black Fang Metalcore
KILLGRAVE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Die for Us Technical Death Metal
WEREWOLVES
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Goblin Sessions Heavy Metal
THEM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

ScapeGoat Official Lyric Video
FIREFLAME
Bosh66· 7 hours ago
Fervence - The Silent Wall
FERVENCE
Bosh66· 7 hours ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us