Atrocity: Okkult III

Atrocity are a long serving band from Germany. They’ve been active since 1985, and are set to release their 10th Studio Album Okkult III in January 2023. The new album sees the band conclude a trilogy of albums which started a decade ago with 2013’s Okkult.

To my ears Okkult III is, at its heart, an old school death metal album. Despite the old school soul (which I identify with immediately), the album has some healthy doses of symphonic elements in the mix which provides an elaborate, cinematic aspect to the band’s sound. The bands penchant for synths and epic arrangements shouldn’t come as a total surprise given the considerable overlap in band members between Atrocity and the Symphonic metal band Leaves' Eyes.

Tracks like "Malicious Sukkubu", "Teufelsmarsch" (Feat. Robse Dahn & Misstiq) & "Bleeding For Blasphemy" are particularly grand in scale and heavy on the symphonic aspects of the Atrocity sound. There’s an almost gothic sound to the instrumentation that marries well with the blasphemous lyrical content, and is reminiscent to the sort of symphonic arrangements found on Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, or other symphonic black metal releases. Despite the heavy focus on symphonic elements at certain stages of the album, Okkult III also contains its fair share of ‘straight up’ death metal too- "Lycanthropia", "Fire Ignites", and "Cypka" are some strong examples of this more straight forward approach.

Okkult III is a strong album but on my initial play throughs the album I found the symphonic elements to be a little jarring against the old school death metal sound. However, after a bit more time with the release I no longer find the symphonic elements to be much of an issue. The strong riffing and musicianship on the album is a clear highlight and subsequently this album should hit the right spot for most fans of death metal. I’d recommend it for fans who favour Symphonic offshoots of extreme metal.

Track Listing
1. Desecration Of God
2. Fire Ignites
3. Born To Kill
4. Bleeding For Blasphemy
5. Priest Of Plague
6. Malicious Sukkubus (Feat. Elina Siirala & Zoe Federoff)
7. Lycanthropia
8. Faces From Beyond
9. Cypka
10. Teufelsmarsch (Feat. Robse Dahn & Misstiq)

Added: December 3rd 2022
Reviewer: Chris Reid
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 1161
Language: english

[ Printer Friendly Page ]
[ Send to a Friend ]