Anaal Nathrakh: Vanitas – new album

Candlelight Records deemed November the 6th, 2012 an appropriate date to unshackle the soundtrack for Armageddon, the audial essence of evil, hatred and violence, the true spirit of necro taken to its musical extremes, (“RIP-MY-FUCKING-HEAD-OFF-AND-USE-IT-AS-A-FUCKING-KICK-BALL-THEN-STICK-IT-IN-A-FUCKING-CANNON-AND-SHOOT-IT-INTO-FUCKING-OUTER-FUCKING-SPACE!!!”) ANAAL NATHRAKH, upon North America. Not one of my best and brightest blogging moments, since I’ve completely missed the album's European release which occurred on October 15th 2012, you are advised to buy ‘Vanitas’, produced by Mick Kenney, here (ANAAL NATHRAKH official store), here (Candlelight USA) or here (Candlelight UK). If still unsure how to pronounce your favourite band's name, let Merlin (yes, the magician) himself instruct you here (YouTube). But firstly, get violated by listening to the full ‘Vanitas’ here (BandCamp).

“[According to vocalist Dave Hunt, ANAAL NATHRAKH's seventh album sounds like:] someone showing you what the end of the world is like via the medium of a thousand hammers soaked in acid. It’s more articulate and focused than any album before it in way of composition and recording technique. We worked hard and we’re convinced it has paid off”

Taking their cue from Norwegian black metal bands such as MAYHEM and BURZUM, musician, artist, and producer Mick Kenney (ex-MISTRESS, ex-FROST…) and vocalist Dave Hunt (ex-MISTRESS, BENEDICTION) formed ANAAL NATHRAKH in 1999 in Birmingham, England and, we are told, succeeded pushing England back into the forefront of global musical extremity in the process. The band that named itself after Merlin's (yes, the magician) charm for “serpent's breath”, recorded two demos before delivering its first album, ‘The Codex Necro’ in 2001 through Mordgrimm Records in Europe and Earache Records in U.S.:

“More astounding still, this incredibly radical and complex sonic vision (think MINISTRY on crack, piped up straight from the very depths of hell) was the work of but two men: the demonic duo of vocalist V.I.T.R.O.L. [David Hunt] and self-sufficient songwriter, guitarist, bassist, and drums/keyboards programmer Irrumator [Mick Kenney], both of whom had spent the better part of three years orchestrating this inexorable, sensory-overloading debut,” [commented AllMusic's Eduardo Rivadavia - more here]

‘Total Fucking Necro’, a compilation album made up of the pair's first two demos, followed in 2002 via Rage Of Achilles. 2003's EP ‘When Fire Rains Down From The Sky, Mankind Will Reap As It Has Sown’ (Mordgrimm Records), featuring guest appearances by guitarist Set Teitan and vocalist Attila Csihar, was reissued in 2006 by Earache Records featuring three additional tracks. Described as “just what the doctor ordered for fans of ANAAL NATHRAKH” by Mr. Eduardo Rivadavia, the venerable music critic continued to applaud the band for their second studio album ‘Domine Non Es Dignus’, released in 2004 via Season Of Mist Records and available for your listening pleasure below. Buy here (Season Of Mist):

“Really, it isn’t every day one can describe a black metal album as immediate, but ‘Domine Non Es Dignus’ comes as close to accomplishing that feat as anything so extreme-sounding could feasibly be expected to. Which is to say, it’s very, very good.” [Read the rest here]

‘Eschaton’, third album featuring guest appearances by NAPALM DEATH's Shane Embury and vocalist Attila Csihar, came out in 2006 on Season Of Mist.The formidable duo turned to bassist Shane Embury again on 2007's ‘Hell Is Empty, And All the Devils Are Here’, as well as to CIRCLE OF DEAD CHILDREN's Joe Horvath and EXPLODER's Dirty Von Donovan:

“The riffs on songs like ‘Until The World Stops Turning’ and ‘Virus Bomb’, even as they roar past at 1,000 bpm, are almost catchy, in an extreme metal sort of way. One could even imagine singing along with the chorus of the latter track, as it approaches a DIMMU BORGIR-like accessibility,” [tried his luck reviewing ANAAL NATHRAKH's work AllMusic's Phil Freeman - more here]

ANAAL NATHRAKH changed labels in 2009, hoping that with Candlelight Records' help they could “finally get the planet cracked in half”. They gave it their best shot on ‘In The Constellation Of The Black Widow’, judged by AllMusic's Phil Freeman thusly:

“This is a fierce and unrelenting album unlikely to appeal to anyone who doesn’t like being shrieked at for 35 minutes at a time, but there’s subtlety within the sonic maelstrom. Voices are heard in the distant reaches of the mix like lost souls calling out in Hell as the larger roar overwhelms, with guitar solos and drum (machine) breaks emerging from the waves of audio hate,” [read the rest here]

In 2011, the nefarious duo “re-vomited results of an 18-month journey through slings, arrows and outrageous misfortune”. ‘Passion’, an encoded vision of agony due, accommodated contributions of twisted misanthropy from Rainer Landfermann (PAVOR, BETLEHEM), Alan Dubin (KHANATE) and GNAW THEIR TONGUES:

“… ‘Pasion’ explores new ways to alter and expand ANAAL NATRAKH's already improbably vast vocabulary for all things excessive, driven as always by the positively nightmarish visions of songwriter and multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire Mick Kenney. Both his compositional and instrumental capabilities receive frighteningly stunning showcases in the album's first pair of miniaturized, industrial black metal mini-symphonies: the majestically hellacious ‘Volenti Non Fit Iniuria’, and the spectacularly titled ‘Drug-Fucking Abomination’, which doesn’t even break a blastbeat sweat until it’s had three minutes to build a Baroquely-appointed stage it can then torch to the ground,” [wrote Eduardo Rivadavia, AllMusic – read the rest here ]

ANAAL NATHRAKH features: multi-instrumentalist Mick Kenney and vocalsit David Hunt (a.k.a. V.I.T.R.I.O.L)