Autokrator – The Obedience of Authority (Godz of War Productions)
Sunday, 17th April 2016
Autokrator’s self-titled release last year had some potential but much of it fell behind the relentless blasting and drone riffs, which caused the muddy sounding record to be very one-dimensional in nature. It sounded massive and heavy (industrial elements also aid in this factor), but ultimately nothing really caught the ear once the album was over. The Obedience of Authority sees the band leaping and bounding past what they did only a year ago.
The most notable thing that appears to have changed is the added atmosphere. Not in a loving and beautiful way, but industrialized filth wrapping around the droning riffs. There’s a true feeling of claustrophobia during the quieter points of the album, such as the end of “Chapter I” or “Chapter VI.” In combination with the faster parts of the album, there’s still an identifiable wall of sound that will knock you back when you hear it. The start of “Chapter IV” is a nice introduction to this dense and impressive blitzkrieg. If anything it knocks you back a bit further, because there are some points where the album slows down a bit to revel in some more mid-tempo (near-groovy) stuff to give the needed dynamic that seemed to be mostly absent last time around. The vocals are a bit more pronounced as well, with some of the repeated lines coming out strong and giving the songs a boost in memorability (see “Chapter V”).
Keeping the same sense of devastation and mercilessness that the self-titled album had, but ushering in more dynamics to keep it from sounding too similar, The Obedience of Authority harnesses the band’s full potential. Raw, brutal, and moving more towards a sound that is distinctly their own, it’s an easy pick-up for those looking for cavernous death metal with a more industrialized edge.
