Dark. Darker. Darkest. With the last one ACHENAR will be crowned in hell, let me tell you that much. If you're ready for a one way trip to the apocalypse then here's your ticket. Hailing from Scotland, ACHENAR is the one-man project of Duncan Hemingway. It's a bizarre cocktail of industrial, ambient sounds, classical soundtrack scores and black metal vocals.

Opener "Origin" is a piercing industrial intro, evolving into a haunting orchestral cut "Survive Yourself". Things get weirder with "The Suicide of Giants", sounding like a hybrid of MINISTRY and APHEX TWIN. "Verify Me" is how a SISTERS OF MERCY song would sound 20 years in the future with gothic vocals from Hemingway. "Re-Enervate" is garden-variety industrial rock, and "Avalanche of Fire" could be described as a death industrial track, evil enough to send the corpse paint kids from Norway running for their lives.

Trust me, this isn't easy listening by any stretch; the music is crafted to be consumed as a single, dramatic, hellish piece rather than be seen as individual songs. Not one track sounds like the other, which may be frustrating at first listen, but proves very rewarding after a few spins. It may not be metal per se, but in a lot of ways "All Will Change" is more extreme than the heaviest metal bands could create. Haunting stuff indeed.

- Michels

OFFICIAL SITE: myspace.com/achenarband

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