I knew the second the chaos of “Black Messiah” burst from my speakers Antichrist wasn’t an album I was going to come back to.  This was a clear case of sequencing killing an album for me.  Never mind that the 2007 album from Akercocke was (outside of the opening track) for the most part similar to the progressive death metal I loved on Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone.  I had just discovered that there are some bands I didn’t need to follow throughout their career.

And that’s totally okay. 

If anything the production hearkens back a little to the earlier albums.  There’s a slightly muddy, dirty roar to the guitars and drums running through the track,  but the progressive songwriting and start/stop riffs are still there, as are the clean vocals.  “The Dark Inside” might be the best track from both albums, but I can’t help but come back to that stupid, 56-second burst of noise that serves as the opening track.  I probably had my headphones on loud, and when it hit I can imagine I freaked out.  Is that fair to the band or the album?  No, and listening over the last day or so I simply skipped the track and was able enjoy what I was hearing.  Antichrist scales more toward the rumbling death metal side of the band, and its more upfront nature has a definite appeal.

But what I kept think though was, do I need to like this?  Part of this project is going through my collection and understanding what it says about me.  And with Antichrist, it feels a bit like I clung to something that didn’t fit, maybe because I thought I was supposed to.  Maybe it got a good Decibel score.  Maybe I kept telling myself I’d give it one more chance.

I did.  If I was simply doing a “keep” or “ditch” this would be my first “ditch” for the reason of simply “because…”  Because not everything has to have a reason, and I’m not under any obligation to like anything, really.

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Maybe part of this project is making my peace with that.