25 Days Of Metal 2012: #14 The Acacia Strain – Death Is The Only Mortal

December 12th, 2012

Jordan Munson

Rather than counting down the days until we can celebrate Christmas, this year we’re bringing you a series of metal posts will be celebrating the countdown until we don’t have to be inundated with Christmas music and decorations everywhere. To coincide with this countdown we’ll be posting our top 25 metal (and metal-ish) albums of 2012. 25 days of hell, 25 rad metal albums to make up for it.

Deathcore is dead, mostly. I’d bet The Acacia Strain likes it this way, especially if you follow the sentiment from their latest album, Death Is The Only Mortal (if you did that, though, the list would be a long one). Over their careers, The Acacia Strain haven’t exactly been known as cheerful optimists, and that trend continues with another incredibly bleak, destructive, nihilistic album. If you’re looking for proof, one of the recurring themes of the opening track “Doomblade” are the words “Stop chasing your dreams, they will never come true.” Evolving the sound a bit around the tried and true lyrics, The Acacia Strain introduce another element to the equation with some wackier groove parts seemingly inspired by bands like Meshuggah, a nice touch to break up any potential monotony to the band’s sound. I’m unsure what anyone else expected from Death Is The Only Mortal, but it delivered on every front I wanted: it’s brutally heavy, hateful, unforgiving and uncompromising–and I wouldn’t want it any other way.