While Bleeding Fist’s latest work, Death’s Old Stench, included Swedish black metal influence and melody, Antikristus removes that influence and chooses to delve deep into the filth and ferocity of the first and second waves to craft a distinctly old-school sound. Reminiscent of bands like Beherit, VON, and Hellhammer, Antikristus makes no attempt to hide its influences. From the opening riffs of “Unholy Rape of the Holy Whore” it’s abundantly clear that Provocator has no desire to diverge from the path set by the aforementioned bands years ago. Simplistic, tremolo picked proto-black metal riffing of no more than a few chords, blasting drums and crashing cymbals, feral growls, rasps, and snarls, all wrapped up in a raw production are things you can expect from  Antikristus. If that description sounds somewhat generic, well, that’s because Antikristus is pretty generic. Apart from Hellscream’s deranged vocals there’s not much to write home about. The musicianship is solid enough, but there’s not much in the way of originality. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though; many awesome releases aren’t very unique at all. It’s just that this particular style’s appeal comes largely from the fact that it served as a precursor to the second wave. This album, anachronistically released in 2014, just seems out of place.

The music on Antikristus isn’t bad by any means. It’s just woefully tired. Not the performance, which is quite obviously genuine, but the whole idea of it. Stylistically, this type of black metal seems to have hit a dead end. It’s been years since I heard an album that pulled this style off, and Antikristus isn’t changing this. For those of you who wish that metal hadn’t progressed past 1991 or so, this album is essential. For the rest of us, though, there’s not much worth revisiting on Antikristus.