Krucyator Productions recently dropped French excruciating extreme metal horde Autokrator’s fourth full-length, “Persecution”, on cassette for the very first time. Released at the tail-end of 2021 on vinyl, CD, and digital formats by the same label, the album portrays the persecution of Christians during the Roman Empire. Influenced from Actes and Monuments or Book of Martyrs by the historian John Foxe, “Persecution” is divided into 5 chapters, plus one outro.
With three lauded albums, Autokrator has already become a fearsome name in the underground. Notorious for their unconventional, harrowing, and hazardous sonic power, the French duo has constantly been extending the limits of extreme music, interspersing death metal with pulverizing doom, earsplitting noise, terrifying black metal, or cadaverous dark experimentation.
On the new album, “Persecution”, Autokrator continues recreating the violent episodes from the past. Once again, using historical incidents as the album theme, the band recounts the persecution of Christians during the ancient Roman Empire – under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius, Diocletian, Domitian, and Trajan. Make no mistake, the record has nothing to do with glorifying the barbarity; it rather conjures up the cruel and dreadful sufferings of the victims – be it decapitation, execution, lapidation, damnatio ad bestias, dislocation, imprisonment, or banishment.
A trial fraught with danger, the album “Persecution” sees Autokrator entering into a new trajectory of death/black metal, shrouded by menacing, grotesque atmosphere. Musically, the suffocating 6-track record is the most intense and gnarliest offering by the duo thus far.
Kevin Paradis (Benighted, Mithridatic), who played drums on the previous record, again joined forces with Autokrator to lend his vicious, torrential blasts.
 |
1. De Gloria Martyrum Et Confessorum 2. The Great Persecution 3. DCLXVI 4. Antechristus 5. Caesar Nerva Traianus 6. Apocalypsis |
