ACOD "Fourth Reign Over Opacities And Beyond" CD

ACOD: Fourth Reign Over Opacities And Beyond

Format: CD – National
BLACK HEARTS RECORDS & Sulfur Records

The title, "Fourth Reign Over Opacities And Beyond," literally translates to "Fourth Reign Over Opacities and Beyond," and it's enigmatic. The entire art concept was once again entrusted to the artist Paolo "Madman" Girardi, who has dozens of other creations in his portfolio, including ACOD's previous 2018 album, The Divine Triumph. But that's not all that makes this a great album. Looking further at the cover, I see it depicting infernal depths and a river of impure souls, flowing with human catharsis, attempting to purge their sins as if there were some way to purify themselves.

The album opens with an intro titled “Sur d'Anciens Chemins,” an epic instrumental opening that feels like the beginning of a film. But don't be fooled; despite the initial atmosphere, it fades with the second song, “Genus Vacuitatis,” which maintains the keyboard immersed in the purest Blackened Death Thrash Metal. However, with so many styles within the band's sound, we're left wondering what they truly want to do.

Just to highlight that, up to the point of writing this, this was my first time listening to ACOD, but I'm familiar with the other bands these guys also play in, like Celestia, Mortifera, and Hawkmoon, for example. So I immersed myself in the band's sound and discovered that Fourth Reign Over Opacities And Beyond is the natural evolution of everything they've done and that has happened gradually in each of their previously released albums.

Returning to the new album, it continues without a single minute of respite when, in the sixth song, “Infernet's Path,” we have the second intro, as if it were a pause to catch our breath and a preparation for “Artes Obscurae,” an intense, extremely heavy, melodic, and atmospheric sound all at the same time, and so the album maintains this momentum until its end in the epic “Empty Graves.”

In short, I can say that it's impossible to separate the symphonic context from the raw, brutal sound; one wouldn't exist without the other. All of this makes Fourth Reign Over Opacities And Beyond a unique and singular, utterly infernal work.

Let's remember that this work includes yet another surprise as a bonus, released exclusively in the Brazilian edition, but I'll leave that for you, the reader of this letter, to form your own impressions; I've already given mine.

Apocalypse Press