With “Serpent & The Son”, Akilla have given us a promising glimpse of what their upcoming album will contain. Their debut record The Gods Have Spoken will be released sometime this spring, so for those of you dying to sink your teeth into it, you won’t have to wait too long. When I first began listening to “Serpent & The Son”, I was immediately drawn in by its massive opening riff and hellish vocals. About a minute into the song there is a dramatic shift in sound: a glorious, atmospheric soundscape slowly crescendos, contrasting anguished screams, only to then crash right back into the same chugging riff from the opening. This pattern repeats itself a few times throughout the song and it does a lot to keep things fresh. As a “core guy” I usually prefer a skull-crushing breakdown in every song by the 1:30 mark, but I walked away from this one pleasantly surprised and eagerly anticipating the chance to hear more from Akilla soon.