Sounding a little bit like Enslaved is never a bad thing in the eyes of most right-thinking people, and yes, Acolyte certainly have that vibe running through their progressive take on the black metal sphere. But this UK act is far from a mere Enslaved clone and their debut full-length stands them in good stead for being one of the leading black metal projects from these fair isles.
Acolyte are still a tad rough around the edges at the moment, most obviously on the songs that have been reworked from their 2011 EP Leng, but there’s an emerging cohesion to be found on new songs such as Charybdis. The Nameless Expanse, however, is a reckless song that writhes with a terrific agony.
JT’s vocals are charged with unholy might and swing from deep guttural bellows to screams of torture with impressive style, and during Sunrise his deep roars dredged from the bowels of the earth rip the song apart quite demonically. Acolyte deserve to go far.
