Dishing out mighty assaults of ear-pummelling noise, Akercocke were a volatile, combustible force who mixed guttural, growling vocal screams, progressive guitar wizardry and thunderous volumes of noise to define their sound as 'blackened death metal'.
Formed in London in 1997, front man Jason Mendonca and drummer David Gray were old school friends who had played together in former band Salem Orchid, and recruited guitarist Paul Schanlon and bass player Peter Theobolds to complete the line-up. Taking inspiration from American death metal acts such as Death, Deicide and Suffocation, they self-released their debut album 'Rape of the Bastard Nazarene' in 1999 and stood out from the crowd by dressing in smart suits on stage. They signed to Earache Records for the albums 'Chronozon' in 2003, 'Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone' in 2005 and 'Antichrist' in 2007, and their talk of Satanic rituals and lyrics about summoning the anti-Christ caused a big media controversy when they played gigs in Northern Ireland. They split in 2012, but have since reformed with new bass player Nathanael Underwood and released their sixth studio album 'Renaissance in Extremis' in 2017.
