Achren – The Forgotten King CD review

The world has been waiting too long for a debut album from Scottish death metal heads; the mighty Achren, and now, two demo’s and a DVD down the line, we have been given the mother of all death metal albums, the queen of the BRUTAL, the insane new album The Forgotten King. With ten heavy as hell hits which not only are killer to bang your head to, but also to scream like a mad man to, Achren have good reason to have left us in suspense for this new album, and that reason is that they have been working on one of the best albums of 2011!

There are so many great songs on this album and Achren don’t pull any punches when delivering these extremely heavy songs. When you have fast paced, down tuned, distorted, death metal hits such as ‘The Way of the Twilight or the Aura of Flies’, ‘Bastards on the Gallows or Bastards on the Rack’ and ‘Darkest Day’ blasting out of your earphones at 100mph you can’t help but head bang violently and circle pit in your own living room to the rock solid riffs, and the charging blast beats that spawn forth from these dark bloodthirsty songs.

Singer Scott Anderson has to be complimented to be one of the best death metal singers of the past 10 years, putting his demonic harsh vocals onto every song on this album with power, aggression and blood lust, raging through songs like ‘Wings of War’, ‘Impaled’ and ‘Fury of the Nortmen’ like Satan himself on a Harley Davidson. His voice is something to behold, and from his low crusty growling, to his high pitched black metal pig squeals, he will have you not only scared for your life, but also in awe at his masterful vocal abilities.

Death Metal is just noise to some people, but Achren but their heart and soul into the music side of The Forgotten King, making every second of the music just as brilliant as the quite literally killer vocals over the top of it. Whether it be the very Nordic sounding guitar riffs from deadly duo Callum Kirk and Scott Anderson, the in your face bass drone from John Clark Anderson or the insanely fast blast beats coming from talented drummer Gordon Johnston, the musical talent on this album shines through in every song making The Forgotten King a must have for anybody who calls them self a metal fan!

The Forgotten King has to be one of the highlights of 2011, and this is Achren’s first album which is great news. If Achren can deliver a brilliant album first time round, who knows what they are capable of? One thing is for sure…… It will sound like a bear ripping a granny in half and it will be excellent. [9/10]