So, here we are – the long-awaited ACHERON double compilation CD is out eventually. It has them all – all the hits: ‘Slaughterization For Satan’ (cult title), ‘Blessed By Damnation’, ‘One With Darkness’, ‘Lifeforce’… The latter going back to the “Those Who Have Risen” phase of the band, which I prefer as a matter of fact. I do not want to bore you with tedious details here – the compilation really represents the artistic phases ACHERON went through as a formation. There are old school hits from the early years, taken from “Messe Noir”, “Rites Of The Black Mass” (1991) and more recent material like tracks from “Those Who Have Risen” (1998). I think it is highly interesting to observe the development and changes on such a compilation. It is astonshing how different ACHERON actually sound. The line-up of the band, as we all are aware of, was affected constantly by changes. The most remarkable songs are those featuring Michael Estes (BURNING INSIDE) because he is such an awesome guitarist. It is astonishing as well that Richard Christy once played in ACHERON. Of course it is interesting as well that ACHERON were able to recrute Kyle Severn (INCANTATION) on drums. A real cauldron of Death Metal personalities over the years. Well – we all know what ACHERON sound like: doomy, satanic, old school, primitive at times (with this strange effect entailing filigree solos woven in), classical, a bit cheesy and pretentious sometimes. This is a cult band for sure and this compilation represents the work and efforts of a very important band that has certainly proven its consistency. Sometimes I do not really observe this consistency in the compositional sphere because in this dimension the band sounds a bit undecided at times. But still – it is interesting detecting all those parallels to bands we all grew up with: NOCTURNUS, INCANTATION, DEATH etc. The cover artwork is a bit tacky I would say, but that is personal taste. The artist is called Timo Würz and seems to have some reputation. To cut this short – definitely a cult release of a cult band, granting a representative fragment as a nostalgic summary for loyal followers of the left-hand path or an interesting appetizer for people who happen to witness this storm of “diabolical fury upon the world” (quote from band’s biography). [I personally really wonder why the hard to find original releases haven’t been re-released instead of coming up with a compilation of only a selected number of songs from those years… I bet that all those ACHERON lunatics who discovered the band too late to buy those records when they were originally released would have appreciated that a lot more in order to complete their collection… – Frank] Label contact: www.black-lotus-recs.com.