Anaal Nathrakh are the epitome of the twisted nihilistic flame that produces the best in black metal. They define uncompromising, each album producing walls of triggered blastbeats, positively insane vocals and rasping black metal riffs. They embody their concept of mankind’s extinction in the face of machine dominance fully, truly sounding like the coming of the Apocalypse.
Their second album, ‘Domine Non es Dignus’, released in 2004, shows the full power of their abilities. I mean, the opening intro track is called ‘I Wish I Could Vomit Blood on All You People’. What do you expect after that, I mean really? It is a more ambient, industrial piece before the full on assault begins with second track ‘The Oblivion Gene’, a raging torrent of a track that encompasses all that makes this such an excellent album; razor sharp riffing, impenetrable blasting and tortured, shrieking howls from vocalist Dave Cunt.
The third track however, ‘Do Not Speak’, is where the band throws us a curveball and prove that they aren’t a one trick pony. Opening with the quote ‘If you want to see the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever’, it tears off with some great blasting and riffs, coupled with screeching and growling before opening up into a monstrous melodic section, complete with grand clean vocals reigning over a blasting hellscape beneath. Imagine if you will, the song as a movie about a battle between the last of human kind and their mechanised enemy. The blasting, fierce sections are the close in shots, right up where the blood and metal fly. The open sections are the moment where the camera shoots up and gauges the massive scale of the event, complete with operatic angel choirs etc. It sounds very cliche I know, but it was the first image in my brain when I heard it.
For me, ‘Do Not Speak’is the benchmark for quality in this album. ‘Procreation of the Wretched’ is a more typical black metal attack coupled with more grindcore esque vocals, and ‘To Err is Human, to Dream: Futile’ is a more subdued beast, reminiscent of Satyricon’s more regal moments. It is however Emperor that Anaal really seem to emulate, with the huge vocal arrangements on some tracks, especially some of the falsetto work in ‘Revaluation of All Values’ which is very Ihsahn-like. Its not a bad thing, and it is good to see them taking a more mature black metal approach than just the riff/blast/shriek combination that has afflicted a lot of the black metal scene. In fact ‘Revalution…’ actually possesses a very groovy riff section at the 3 minute mark before exploding into craziness yet again.
The album continues in such a destructive manner, destroying everything in the wake of ‘The Final Destruction of Dignity’, pounding the remains mercilessly into the ground with ‘Swallow the World’ and then producing yet another melodic break with ‘This Cannot Be the End’. Closing with the Dylan Thomas-inspired ‘Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light’, Anaal Nathrakh continue to rally the listeners to fight the coming dehumanisation of the world and to fight mankind’s extinction. You could almost imagine the band being asked to write the music for the new Terminator movie, as it would sit in perfectly with the theme.
If you are a fan of such nihilistic, destructive music, Anaal Nathrakh are the band for you. I prefer their later work personally, especially ‘Eschaton’ and ‘Hell is Empty and All the Devils are Here’, but ‘Domine Non es Dignus’ is as devastating as this band can be. A work of uncompromising brutality, rage and quality from a band who are probably going to be the voice of the Apocalypse.
I finally have managed to get a hold of ‘Southern Storm’, the latest album from Brazilian death metal titans Krisiun. I first got into the band when I heard ‘Vicious Wrath’ from their previous effort, 2006’s ‘AssassiNation’, and heard a promo version of this CD last year. I finally got it cheap on Play.com, only 4.99, what a deal.
This is an album designed to destroy crowds at gigs. Plain and simply, this album contains so many brutal riffing segments that it makes your head spin. Wailing guitars crash into melodic solos, which in turn melt into thunderous chug sections (‘Sentenced Morning’) or just rocket off into earth quaking blast fests (‘Twisting Sights’). Krisiun have always been about the blast; they don’t try to overwhelm you with too many melodies or technical passages, they just stay true to their death metal roots and insist on slaying everyone in their way.
Vocally the band is standard fare, but personally its nice to hear a death metal vocalist who doesn’t try to pig squeal or scream these days. Alex Camargo rarely gets above a low growl, but there’s a strength behind his vocals that hooks you in, plus a good standard of clarity in them too. He sounds particularly malignant and menacing on brooding masterpiece ‘Minotaur’. Lyrically he stays close to topics like Satanism, darkness and anti-Christianity, all your standard fare for this sort of music but he delivers it with a certain raw threat that adds to the theme.
The main flaw in this album is, surprisingly, the Sepultura cover. Yes, Brazilian death metal titans playing a classic of Brazilian death metal should have been golden, but they picked the wrong song. ‘Refuse/Resist’ is a good cover, it’s well executed and there is a certain magic to it but why not something more suited to Krisiun’s sound like ‘Beneath the Remains’ or ‘Dead Embryonic Cells’? To be honest its a pretty small gripe, and when compared with the quality of the rest of the record, I mean come on, how many bad covers have you heard in your life? It’s not bad, not at all, but it could have been better. Track highlights are the face melting opener ‘Slaying Steel’, the rumbling, atmospheric ‘Massacre Under the Sun’ and the all conquering closer ‘Whore of the Unlight’, which refuses to let the album finish with anything less than full on rage.
When you get this record, and I truly suggest you do, you will hold in your hand one of the best death metal records of the past few years. Krisiun’s level of playing skill is excellent, their riffing is dense and powerful, the blast is intense and sometimes relentless and the vocal delivery as brutal as they come. ‘Southern Storm’ is probably the best description this album could ever get, buy it and submit yourself to the barrage. Essential.
Razor of Occam are an Australian blackened thrash band that have recently released this, ‘Homage to Martyrs’, a potent metal beast of an album. Their name refers to Occam’s Razor, which is a scientific principle that all things equal, the most simple explanation (theory) for something is likely to be the correct one. Ironically, this is exactly how they pursue their brand of raging blackened thrash, reigning in some of the more dramatic elements of peers such as Melechesh or Absu and replacing them with full blown energy.
‘Homage to Martyrs’ was, to begin with anyway, similar in sound to Melechesh’s last album ‘Emissaries’, with less complex arrangements and Eastern flourishes, but appears to be playing to the same audience. However, they don’t let up with the visceral attack for the entire 33 minute length of the album; no instrumental passages, no acoustic interludes or intros, just full blown war on the senses. The riffs switch between grooving thrash riffs and spiralling solos, and blasting black metal riffing. Opener ‘Altar of Corruption’ is pure headbanging fodder, and seems to be the bastard child of Absu and early Kreator. Epic closer ‘Shadow of the Cross’ boasts a full 3 guitar solos while barrelling through some excellent thrash and groove riffs, while tracks like ‘Bite of Dogmata’ and ‘Heat of Battle’ show the more black metal side of the band. ‘Pattern on the Stone’ slows procedures only slightly but loses none of its presence, and the excellent soloing opening of ‘Flame Bearers’ is a guitarist’s dream.
Razor of Occam have been lucky here. Too often combining black and thrash metals can stunt both the atmosphere or speed of those genres, and can fail to meet expectations. ”Homage to Martyrs’ doesn’t do that. At no point does it feel that the menacing black metal atmosphere has faded behind grooving riffs, nor the impact of some simply excellent thrash riffing stunted by a concentration on black metal atmospherics. Razor of Occam have produced quite a potent album here, its just unfortunate that its so short. Longer tracks like ‘Shadow of the Cross’ show that the band are capable of producing longer material, hopefully they’ll lean that way for the next record, because they’ve made a good start here.
I recently rebooted my PC, and had to re-add all 26789 tracks back into my iTunes. This reset my play count, which was admittedly slightly upsetting considering I was finally over halfway through all the tracks since my previous boot. But it presented me with an opportunity to listen through a number of albums I love and haven’t listened to in a while. I occasionally have a tendency to leave my favourites behind in order to explore every new band, genre or album I can find.
I’m so glad I made this decision, because I have rediscovered one of the most important albums in my life, Nevermore’s ‘This Godless Endeavor’. Released in 2005, it cemented Nevermore’s reputation as one of the most important and consistent progressive metal bands. ‘This Godless Endeavor’ combined all the best elements of Nevermore’s sounds; the progressive, dense riff patterns and tearing solos of guitarist Jeff Loomis, and the intelligent lyrics of vocalist Warrel Dane. Dane’s lyrical topics are much more than just your typical metal lyric, exploring philosophical and theological issues, even venturing into the sad thoughts of a robot on the ballady ‘Sentient 6′. He points his finger of rage at the media in ‘Final Product’ ( “the media loves its latest tragic suicide, they exploit it, then package it, and profit from the people who died!”) and the nation of medicators he feels America has became on ‘Medicated Nation’ (“a medicated nation of blind neurotics”). It is work like this that sets Dane apart as one of the most essential lyricists of our time.
This album contains some of the heaviest riffing in progressive metal. The roaring start to ‘Born’, the more measured attack of video track ‘Final Product’ and the thunder of the title track when it finally ignites are perfect examples of Loomis’ dense riffing. In fact, the title track is probably the best thing the band have ever written, an 8 minute masterpiece discussing the debates about God and theology. It opens with pastoral guitar mingling with Dane’s vocal lines before exploding into a death/thrash riff that is just awesome. Here Loomis shows his best shredding abilities; linking together excellent sweeping riffs and a tearing solo.
I’m admittedly biased about this album, I have listened to this constantly since it was released, and have rarely ever found a track I don’t enjoy listening to. For me, it is the thought provoking lyrical content and heavy riffing that put Nevermore up above their peers. They explore obscure and philosophical topics without feeling at all pretentious or uneducated, and most of Loomis’ riffing doesn’t drop below awesome. His soloing is also incredibly fluid, winding their way round tracks and slipping in and out of the other riffs. Simply an essential album for anyone who likes metal, full stop.
Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s maniacal digital grind first met my ears last year, when I picked up a second hand copy of their double disc ‘Bestial Machinery’. Wow. I didn’t really know what to make of it to begin with; even having listened to grindcore for a number of years, this was something else entirely. The violent energy was astonishing, and I looked forward to their next release.
Well, ‘Agorapocalypse’ is here, and the apocalypse in fast forward is what it sounds like. Opening track ‘Timewave Zero’ approaches like some epic war machine, slowing in preparation for its final assault. From there it powers through two minutes of insane riffing, frantic howls and screams of rage. The opening five tracks all contain this same level of intensity, never compromising speed for brutality except when necessary, but containing some thick chunky riffing, especially in the rumbling intro to ‘Hung from the Rising Sun’.
In fact it appears that Scott Hull and co have been listening to something other than the crazy voices in their head, as ‘Agorapocalypse’ is a much more musically based album than the ‘micro-grind’ flavoured records they have released. ‘First National Stem Cell and Clone’ is a perfect example of this; blending grind, death metal and thrash into the one track successfully, as with the following ‘Question of Integrity’. Of course, they haven’t lost this grind edge completely, with closing tracks ‘Ex-Cop’ and Flamingo Snuff’ both capable of fitting onto ‘Bestial Machinery’, and ‘Druggernaut Jug Fuck’ hitting pretty awesome speeds in places, but in reining in the craziness for a more refined and focused result, it appears Agoraphobic Nosebleed may have found the perfect combination to create excellent works of grind.
Vocally the album retains that quality of the unhinged, especially with the triple layered vocals of Richard Johnson, female screamer Katherine Katz and main lyricist Jay Randall taking turns to assault your senses. Katz does a particularly good job, sounding as demented as possible while never losing a clarity to her delivery.
‘Agorapocalypse’ may be the turning point for Agoraphobic Nosebleed; the moment where their brand of spazz grind evolves into a potent musical weapon. Older fans may be disappointed by the lack of 30 second blast fests, but when that is stripped back, you find a band that is not afraid to compromise in order to find the result they want. They haven’t lost their edge, they have merely refined it into a malignant, musical beast.