ACXDC

With the world being run by lunatics, there's never been a better time to be stridently blasphemous. ACxDC may have a name that may make you think of both AC/DC and ANAL CUNT, but there is something uniquely swivel-eyed and forceful about this band's religion-baiting cacophony. For a start, the band's full name is ANTICHRIST DEMONCORE, which seems a much better fit than its abbreviation: this is, after all, demonic grindcore with a boldly anti-Christian message. And, if that sounds like the kind of thing that floats your malevolent coracle, then "Satan Is King" is absolutely guaranteed to hit the spot. Not that ACxDC are confining themselves to some gnarly, sonic ghetto here. Their debut for Prosthetic Records sounds colossal; full of thunderous bottom end and priapic with evil clarity. It's just that these songs are delivered at flat-out, insane speeds by disturbed and dangerous men who clearly have issues to deal with beyond being fairly pissed off at the church.

If you've heard the preview singles, you will know what to expect from the rest of "Satan Is King". "Copsucker", "Gorged" and the title track are myopic, steroidal bursts of thuggish grind that drip and ooze with vitriol, and the remaining 12 songs are all equally ugly and destructive. When the band drop into a slower riff, it's nearly always of the churning, abyssal death/doom variety, while frequent moments of rhythmic perversity nod to a kinship with the original grindcore creed propagated by BRUTAL TRUTH. But the core of "Satan Is King" is one harrowing and sustained scream of rage against the idiocy of religion, society, humanity and just about everything else. Fittingly, ACxDC's music eschews nuance in favor of machine-gun bludgeon, and as the brief but blistering likes of "Matapacos" and "Come Out Fighting" scorch through your earholes like a nasty infection, it will be the album's sheer violent simplicity that will have you coming back for more. Plus, this album is only 24 minutes long, so more isn't that much more in this context. Satan may be king, but he hasn't got time to fuck around.