Akatharsia – No Generation Without Corruption (PV-XXIV)

Akatharsia is a four-piece black/punk band, hailing from Oakland, CA. It’s become a household name, having released its first demo through Psychic Violence, and a split with the mighty Urzeit in 2014. Three years later, the band has returned with its debut full-length album. No Generation Without Corruption dropped alongside a reissue of Sanguine Eagle’s Individuation on Psychic Violence last July. While the immense popularity of Individuation is well-deserved, it would be a grave mistake to overlook its partner.

No Generation Without Corruption is a vicious blend of black metal and punk. The songs are wonderfully diverse in a way that keeps the album fresh. The opener, “Refusal of Light,” kicks off with a classic black metal explosion of blastbeats and tremolo riffs over screamed vocals that are a little recessed in the mix. The album’s title track changes things up with a catchy d-beat style that captures both the band’s punky attitude and metal aggression.

The rest of the album proceeds in a frenetic mixture of the two styles, often weaving in and out of each other and leaving the listener broken, in both body and soul; “Plastic Wrapped and Useless” captures this excellently. There’s no singular ‘pinpoint sound,’ but a hurricane that changes from slow, grating chords to a torrent of tooth and nail blasts in the blink of an eye.

The songs packed within No Generation vary in length, with many over the three-minute mark; “Exalt Stagnation” and “Desolation” are just under two minutes in comparison. These shorter tracks are packed with in-your-face bursts of hardcore violence. Yet, things are never boring, as the rapid assault of “Length of Rope” gives way to moments of introspection in “Triumphant Negation.”

“Adoration of the Void” is unique in that it’s a nearly fourteen-minute-long journey of droning effects and feedback; a particularly long breather after the skull-grinding of its predecessors. At times it’s gentle, almost welcoming, while the second half turns abrasive before giving way to the album’s last song. It’s place in No Generation is uncertain; it’s not strictly an outro, being the second-to-last track, and “Groveling Towards Oblivion” doesn’t need the buildup. It seems like an experiment in noise, but I’d prefer Akatharsia to go for the throat and keep up the hostility of the rest of the tracks.

The last song of the album, “Groveling Towards Oblivion,” opens with an ominous riff of clean guitars before giving way to a last hurrah of distortion that grabs you by your ankles and drags you through the dirt, a fitting close to the cacophony.

The entire journey is chaotic, filthy and stands as a reminder that black metal need not be boring. Akatharsia succeeds by blending the attitude of BM, punk and noise together into a debut that can’t be missed.

Buy the tape here.

Listen here.