28 Nov 2016

AK-11: "Legendary, Demonic & Invincible"


Northern blasts of black metal warfare
Black is traditionally stripped down to the bare necessities of extremity, but this goes especially for AK-11, a self-proclaimed "triumphant black war metal" band from 2011. The project, fronted by - at the time - sole member Valak, never lets a breath go to waste with no effort spilled on fancy solos, lofty orchestrations or overly complex compositions.


What Valak puts forth on the Legendary, Demonic & Invincible demo pays tribute to acts like Celtic Forst and Emperor in equal amounts, and manages to convincingly carry over an impressive zeal and black metal spirit. Through sneakily inventive guitar riffs AK-11 also conveys a vodka-fuelled Slavic quality hard to pinpoint beyond the use of Russian in songs like Vechnyi Ogon', Slava and Shest' Shest' Shest' i Katuysha.

"The riffs in particular catch the eye as one of Valak's strongest points,"

Most of the tracks are almost literally bursting with energy, with especially the satanic Sniper's Glory standing out with engagingly enticing riffs over the sound of mechanical blast beats. Legendary, Demonic & invincible is characterised by an unusually high-grounded lowest point in terms of soungwriting quality. The riffs in particular catch the eye as one of Valak's strongest points, putting an emphasis too on his raw vocals and overall ability to write captivating material.

The grey veil of Valak's vocal rasping hides the worst bulk of the drumming's programmed nature, and as such the somewhat poor recording quality can be excused on an overall basis. The demo warrants excitement across the board, and while Australian black metal is often the thrashier kind (see countless other bands such as Malichor, Deströyer 666 or Nocturnal Graves), AK-11 manages to steer clear of this regional tendency and instead aims its barrels at far more northern territories.

7/10


Released in 2011 independently

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