MERRIMACK – THE ACAUSAL MASS LP (AFM Records)

This new Merrimack record comes in a nice gatefold jacket with (interesting) lyrics included and, by all accounts, it certainly looks the part. But does it sound the part? That’s the main question. And I don’t have the answer, not definitively at least. I find that ‘The Acausal Mass’ is a very, very good album but not necessarily a great one.

Merrimack first caught my attention with the excellent ‘Of Entropy And Life Denial’ six years ago. Follow-up ‘Grey Rigorism’ didn’t quite reach the same highs and the latest offering falls somewhere in between. Some of the songs and ideas on this record are superb but it doesn’t quite hold my attention throughout.

When ‘The Acausal Mass’ is good (which is most of the time), it’s really, really good. All in all, this is an enjoyably – if slightly inconsistent – album of harsh, dissonant Black Metal delivered with style.

Evilometer: 555/666