“I think it’s in my job description to just steal promos from Kronos for the rest of my writing career. Autokrator is no exception, as a casual perusal through the promo bin revealed this little gem, one that elicited a reaction not unlike from beloved Christmas movie Elf: “I know them!”” Thieving in the house of death.
“In spite of listening to this stuff for the better part of my life now, I still realize how much I don’t know about so many sub-sub-subgenres, such as doom’s vast array. While I delved into the melodic death flavors of Saturnus, Swallow the Sun, and Novembers Doom, I let the cavernous stuff pass me by. It all comes full circle, when Swedish duo Saltas punishes me with a lethal dose of suffocatingly dense doom to whom comparisons are sparse.” Saltas the earth.
“Autokrator and I go way back. Pursuant to my crucifixion of their unlistenable debut, one of the band members wrung me out over my continuing jabs at the group and, I assume, made sure that this august publication would never catch wind of their sophomore release. According to the wishes of both parties, I neither listened to nor reviewed the effort. So it was with both surprise and unease that I pulled their third LP, Hammer of the Heretics, from the promo bin. And wouldn’t you know? Everything that made me hate Autokrator has disappeared.” Beef resolved.
“There are plenty of underground gems out there, unsigned bands full of youthful energy, small-time groups without major label support, and skilled veterans in the scene that just don’t do music for a living. But for every great artist waiting to be discovered, there are ten just not worth unearthing. I’ve found another one; don’t continue reading.” That’s a joke. Keep reading!
“Here at Angry Metal Guy, we love Fleshgod Apocalypse. Well, maybe not love… and sometimes not even very much like. It’s a complicated relationship. But one thing we can agree on is that Oracles is kickass. Its sultry fusion of tech-death and neoclassicism was a winning move that everyone, including Fleshgod Apocalypse somehow failed to follow up on properly. But of course, there are those few who malign such progressive elements, and thus ask the question, “What would this band sound like if they just wrote death metal?”” Kronos asks the hard questions and then answers them.
“Remember that scene in A New Hope where our rebel heroes get caught in an imperial trash compactor and have to somehow get out before they’re crushed into a Jedi-flavored bullion cube? Autokrator watched that classic escape and thought it would be a great idea to musically explore a similar situation in which R2D2 fails to shut down all of the garbage mashers on the detention level and Han, Leia, Luke, and Chewy are replaced by Stephen O’Malley, Nergal, Chris Barnes, and a the GM Frigidaire 1-18, respectively. It was a stupid, stupid idea.” Nuff said.
