The Acacia Strain

Coma Witch

Written by: EL on 13/10/2014 18:02:54

Since the announcement of their seventh full-length album, “Coma Witch”, The Acacia Strain have been privy to a hurricane of excitement and fierce anticipation from their fans. Filled with even more sickeningly brutal breakdowns, unapologetically chaotic lyrics, and an overall, if it’s at all possible, heavier, thunderous sound.

This album wasn’t created to be ground breaking or to create new waves in the industry, it appears to be a demonstration that The Acacia Strain truly owns the definition of sickeningly brutal breakdowns. Down-tuned guitars, ferocious blast beats and breakdowns all feature heavily in their new album especially in “Cauterizer” and “Graveyard Shift”. Having said all that though, some people may feel seriously tired out by the end of the album as it is a constant wave of gnarly breakdowns and it all gets a bit overwhelming by the end and let’s not forget the 28 minute closing song to the album, "The Observer". I still don’t quite understand the purpose behind a 28-minute song, but surprisingly enough I preferred it to more than half of the album. It has so many different themes and varieties in it that it’s hard to remember you’re still listening to the same song. It is as if you were listening to a film being played. You can’t see it, but you fully feel and understand the emotions and storylines that are going on behind a blank screen.

Another surprising thing for me was the production standards. I would personally have expected it to be sonically overwhelming but it just doesn’t seem to be up to scratch or up to a standard I would have expected from a band's seventh album. The drums sound great, as do Vincent Bennett’s vocals, but the guitars seem to be lacking something.

Bennett explained via Twitter that the lyrics all stemmed from his nightmares as he would wake himself up at night and write down what had been in his head, whilst still half asleep. Now that in itself is an interesting concept from where you might find your inspiration, but for me it just sounds like a lot of teenage angst, not the feelings of a man in his thirties.

At the end of the day it’s still a very good album from a band that keeps on throwing the hardest possible punches. Though it may seem lacking in originality and is highly repetitive, there’s no doubt that when it comes down to blaring this through your speakers, you wont be able to stop the feelings of utter rage and ferocity and will most like want to throw down in your room.

6

Download: Cauterizer, Graveyard Shift, Observer
For The Fans Of: Whitechapel, Black Tongue, Despised Icon
Listen: facebook.com

Release date 14.10.2014
Rise Records


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