When I was still a young 20 something discovering Death Metal, I ordered a sampler from a label called JL America through a magazine called Wild Rags. I still have the cassette in my collection and through that one little cassette tape I heard Impaled Nazarene, Pyogenesis, Disastrous Murmur and of course, Acheron. The track is listed as “Thou Art Lord” but it was actually “To Thee We Confess”. That’s on the label of course, but suffice to say that this compilation opened up a whole new level of brutality.

That was 1993, fast forward to 2024… Jesus fucking Christ, I can’t believe I’m writing that. I am very happy with Anthology of Horror; the classic sound with buzzsaw guitars, the doomy as fuck side of Acheron, puts this album in a class with the almost similar Kult de Hasses. But, and I must stress this, if you’re looking for an anti-Christian filled workout, you won’t find it here. There are no homages to Satan, not even a single mention of him as far as I can tell and the good thing about Crowley’s vocals is that he’s pretty understandable when he growls.

How about the music? This is not, by any stretch an Acheron album. Starting out with the haunting “Intro VI VI VI” it gets going with “Amityville’s Horror” in case you haven’t noticed, this album is an homage to horror movies, not Satan. The lyrics reflect this and don’t stray, but standing on it’s own merit Anthology of Horror is a very solid offering from one of the defining figures in the 90s Death Metal scene. Tracks like “Under the Hanging Tree", “That Which Lurkes Beneath the Sea” and “Gods of Crimson Cullings” illustrate the new path that Crowley is taking with his music and it’s a definite head banger, even the slower parts in “Gods of Crimson Cullings” get the head bobbing. The album rounds out with “Coupe de Poudre,” “Madame Laveau” and “Killer” which is a King Diamond cover, and that’s all I’ll say about it, because well, it’s not very good. It’s not HORRIBLE but, it’s weird to hear a King Diamond song without his falsetto and some bands pull it off better than others.

At the end of the day, Anthology of Horror is a pretty solid offering. Having seemingly dropped Satan from his lyrical repertoire which really doesn’t matter, this is an album that could stand next to Lex Talonis or The Final Conflict: Last Days of God. If you love 90s Death Metal then you should definitely check this one out. Crushing delivery makes this a great introduction to 2024’s Death Metal future.

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