The Acacia Strain

Continent

[4/5]

For metal fans who have become jaded to stylized violence, the Acacia Strain’s latest album delivers a brutal jolt. Continent contains no poetic descriptions of carnage nor gorgeous guitar harmonies; nothing but blunt, ugly language (“I want the world to have my rape baby/So when it’s born I can strangle it to death” from “Baby Buster”) and bludgeoning riffs. After committing several savage murders, this concept album’s misanthropic protagonist initiates global genocide. When he bellows, “I am the end of the world” in “Jesus Fucking Christ,” he triggers a doom-groove avalanche. Singer Vincent Bennett inhabits this monster convincingly, using his own name in the lyrics to enhance the snuff-film realism. During the closing instrumental “The Behemoth,” the killer wanders the planet alone, having exterminated all other life. The backdrop lightens, releasing melodic, if haunting, tones that soar above the wreckage. Everbody’s dead, and for this profoundly nihilistic record, that’s a happy ending. (PROSTHETIC) Andrew Miller