I know this is my 3rd album I have reviewed which features at least one member of the Kenny brothers, and my second review of Anaal Nathrakh, but what can I say I love Anaal Nathrakh. If you wish to read generally about the band and also my review about In the Constellation of the Black Widow you may do so here. For those who have already or just read or just wish for me to skip straight to the review then carry on reading.
Thinking hard about it this album is probably my favourite album of all time. In fact I love this album so much that I have 2 versions of it and am awaiting to get my hands on the 3rd and 4th version. The first version is the basic 9 song, the second a reissue by Earache with the Peel Sessions featuring additional tracks which I do not have, the 3rd, I believe to be a fan made one which features live tracks and the final one a reissue in 2009 by FETO records which I also lack.Ironically the two I lack are the two released by my two favourite record labels. However all good things come to those who wait.
This album generally had a mixed reception, with some proclaiming it was the greatest sound to hit the earth, whereas others claimed it was aimless. I tend to find that die hard black metal fans are the ones who detest this album so much, whereas those who aren't big on the black metal genre are the ones who really like it. In fact my house mate who likes drum and bass loves the Humanity Loves Cancer track, one which I highly recommend. I remember reading a journalist describe the track as the gates of hell are being opened up, and further more it was the track used on the premier of an epic british horror film 28 Days Later, another overlooked masterpeice. I really have been painting this album with Gold, and best get on to reviewing it.
This album is neither Black metal, Death metal, Grindcore nor any other genre you can think of. It is a sort of hybrid beast that possess the best elements of all 3. The underlying clockwork and machinations of their songs are rooted in the rawest black metal, with that constant layered guitaring and a sense of mortal fraility and global demise. However this release and band all together borrow heavily from the death metal and Grindcore end of the spectrum of the extreme metal family. In my opinion they take some of the better elements and nail it into this already cruel black metal framework.
As I believe I have previously described them, they don't create music so to speak but create this grim and eerie atmosphere, and other points just release forth all manner of dark odium in a tornado of brutality coupled with despair. The use of audio sampling is used frequently to give their songs that additional ingredient for success. My favourite of which is the Technogoat, which samples Event Horizon, which is another masterpiece which has received minimal attention it deserves.
If we think of the songs in terms of verses and choruses then the songs often consist of a audio assault as a verse, which is loud fast and aggressive (not to the extent of grindcore, but more on the lines of early death metal or even thrash) and then we have this sort of more melodic break into the songs, this sort of repeats itself 2/3 times and then we have this sort of well structured climax which combines the two. This is the general formula used, and they manage to pull it off very well. There is no one song that I dislike, there are times that some songs have that sort of amateurish feel to them, but if you listen closely you realise how much of a coordinated effort.
The Vocals are your savage screams, to your low bellows and occasional sort of being told through a fuzzy microphone, which paints a picture for me of some sort of Fallout scenario (I have been playing too much fallout recently). The drums are good and are pretty standardised apart from your occasional machine gun blast, and the use of the beloved blast beat. The guitaring is layered and fluid, and tends to be different with each song, and is always well integrated with the fast tempo set by the drumming. For you grind fans I suggest checking out the song Pandemonic Hyperblast, for me the beginning feels like some put Insect Warfare through the Hadron Collider and recorded the result. Another highly recommended song is the first track, the Supreme Necrotic Audnance, infact I have it as my alarm clock, it isn't a song that is about speed or heaviness (that comes later in track 2), but is a well crafted peice of art.
In my conclusion I will copy a qoute from another review, as I pretty much think it summarises my views about music and the band in general.
"They've released several great albums since this one, but I always return to 'the Codex Necro', their finest and darkest hour, and I recommend it to you as your inaugural neckbreaking to this band. Jesus avert your ears."
For those of you who are unaware of who Anaal Nathrakh, I recommend that you put it very high on your list of priorities, once you have heard Anaal Nathrakh your life will never be the same again. Anaal Nathrakh have been blasting out waves of unadultered raw black/death/grind since 1999,and have across a decade not failed in producing the finest and most savage of music available to mankind. Featuring Veterans of the metal music industry: Mick Kenny and Dave Hunt, this duo who also work together on Mistress have proven their ability to diversify and play consistently good music from their other bands. As tradition in black metal outfits and common place in other metal bands, the band members adopt nicknames or pseudonyms, with Anaal Nathrakh this also true Dave Hunt has taken the title of V.I.T.R.I.O.L which when you remove the dots is the alternate name for Sulphuric Acid. Mick Kenny opts for the more historical title of Irrumator, now after a bit of research I have come to three possible definitions, although none are certain given that they are not placed in a sentence and thus I cant deduct from the grammar which one it is. The first is a man who forces a person to perform oral sex on him, the second definition is a man that is forced to perform oral sex on another man, and the last one is that it was common place to be used to refer to someone as a bastard in Rome, at a guess I would believe it is either the first or the latter, I am unaware of homosexuality being thematically present in the more extreme metal genre.
Anaal Nathrakh was created in the depths of the former industrial behemoth Birmingham, without a doubt Birmingham has produced the most influential and best that metal has to offer, to name a few: Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Napalm Death, Cathedral, and of course Anaal Nathrakh! And I see it fitting that such a great band should come from such a great place.
After much talk about the Artist themselves I should probably move unto the review of the album, given the purpose of this post is to review the album. However a foreword, breaking with tradition (does 2 times constitute a tradition?) I have not actually explained the purpose of the title, Anaal Nathrakh is a reference to a charm from the novel Sword in the stone and is believed to be old Gaelic word for Serpents Tongue.
In the Constellation of the Black Widow, must be a tributary title to where this record was produced, there is no way this music was produced by machines and people, it must be the creation of something dark and sinister which has allowed this unholy noise to be crafted in such a manner to give evil, despair and nihilism a soundtrack. As mentioned earlier Anaal Nathrakh have changed a number of times their musical orientation, and this was a very welcome return, so much so this feels like a rebirth of their Eschaton album with more passion and greatness, ironically Eschaton is the term for the second coming of Christ, coincidence or providence? . That is not to say that Nathrakhs stuff prior to this was terrible or that the musical direction was a bad turn, what I want to convey across is that every album they do is amazing, im convinced that the two of them have the musical Mydas touch. However this musical stance they have taken is entirely unique, I can not think of any band at all who play anything similar to this and for that reason this is one of my favourites albums and bands, and therefore this is why I was so pleased to see them come back to it with full force.
One of my favourite features of Anaal Nathrakh and which are most prelevant in this album are the vocals, they are amazing. The most common are a high pitched scream which for some reason I cant explain at times sound melodically harmonous with the riffing, I know this may sound vague and I don't want it to be confused with the vocals of melodic death metal, but all I have to say is that you must hear it for yourself. The vocals don't stop there, you often have a low, tad husky voice recite some passages somewhere which I would reckon be reading Nietzsche or some other Nihilist articles, we then get screams which shift from genuine masculine human screams to the high pitched devilish screams and vice versa. By far my favourite element of the vocals are the "normal" vocals, they remind me of old soviet songs and act as the perfect tool to create this idea of despair and hopelessness.
The Instruments are first rate also, Mick Kenny plays the guitars, bass and drums. What a phenomenal feat it is to play 3 instruments at that level of brilliance. All of the instrumental sections feature anything out of this world, nor are they catchy tunes that you can hum to in your head, but they are good at what they do: which is they create this atmosphere. The guitar mostly plays riffs and good ones at that, it is when we look at the guitaring the production value becomes most apparent. The guitaring is more clear and defined than earlier AN, and although those of you who are the ones who prefer the raw dissonant noise of evil might not benefit from this change, I think it is one that is well placed, the way I visualise it as being a shift from emulating the noises of a slow apocalyptic demise to being the actual music of the so called slow apocalyptic demise.
The drumming is definitely noteworthy, I always see the drummers in the hardest place, with a lot of bands all the drumming really does is set the tempo and beat of the song, however making something musical and well integrated into the songs is always a plus in my books, and AN have done this perfect.
For those of you not new to Anaal Nathrakh, should all be aware of the Satanarchist track from Total Fucking Necro album and demo, well this album features a thoroughly well rewritten version of it, dare I say it that I prefer the new version to the original? To those of you who have not heard it, it is an amazing song. At about 3 mins 30 is when I really really like it, I am not even sure how to describe it, but I certainly would like more bands to use this as a blue print in there songs. The band are currently signed to FETO records, which is coowned between Mick Kenny and Shane Embury, amazing record label, my 2nd favourite, just check out the bands.
To conclude Anaal Nathrakh is not music that is there to please your ears, it is meant to be a musical metaphor of this morbid, desolate and grim existence we live in, however In The Constellation of the Black Widow captures the beauty and harmony of this dark fade perfectally. From amazing choruses to blast beats to savage vocals In The Constellation of the Black Widow has them all. Embrace yourselves for the Constellation of the Black Widow.
