Anaal Nathrakh - Endarkenment

Anaal Nathrakh are known for a couple of things. Blisteringly misanthropic blackened deathgrind, and lyrics that have me reaching for my dictionary. I am happy to report (perhaps later than the rest of the metal world) that nothing has changed on Endarkenment.

This is, to be honest, the perfect soundtrack to my 2020, and maybe yours too. Nihilistic fury at the idiocy and brutal scorn for all of human weakness just seem to be so on message for the first plague year.

From the first riff and angry scream of "Endarkenment" you know you are in for a real treat here. In their spit-in-your-face way, the band take on every terrible internet know-it-all, every political finger-pointing idiot, every "but muh freedumbs" sociopathic loser without a thought for anyone or anything outside their own tiny pointless existence; and they start the album by taking them down, hard:

Take what small comfort there may be left
Seize what you love and damn all the rest
Panem, circenses, credulous descent
A Gadarene charge into endarkenment

There is no slowing down after that blistering opening either. All 41 minutes of this album is all gas no brakes. The apocalyptic pulpit pounding does not let up for a single second. They reach into their industrial music bag of tricks to build melodies behind the razors and buzzsaws of their grinding foreground, and it pays off in spades.

The noble search over, no answers to find
We retreat to dust, ignoble, sublime
Nothing to reach for, the death of the mind
Fuck all salvation, the truth is a lie

Comments

Coffin Lurker - Foul and Defiled

Industrial sludge death doom funeral noise from Oakland. Maurice De Jong is the most prolific dude in music, I am certain. Gnaw Their Tongues , Cloak of Altering , De Magia Veterum , Dodenbezweerder are just a few of his projects. Apparently Rene Aquarius from Imperial Cult decided that he would challenge Maurice to a doom-off, and the loser would have to sweep up after the planet was destroyed. This is the sonic record of that planetary destruction. It is also one of the best doom records I've ever heard. Thankfully free of Sabbath worship and lazy rehashing of every boring stoner riff imaginable, this is actually a brand new thing. Suffocatingly vile and planetarily heavy, this is the answer to the unasked question "what would happen if Sunn 0))) were from New Orleans. Foul and Defiled by Coffin Lurker

SPECTRAL WOUND - A Diabolic Thirst

TRVE KVLT BLEK METAL. Black Metal Without Adjectives. However you want to signal that a band or an album is orthodox, foundational, traditional, what have you - this is it. 100% blast beats, tremolo picking, and wraith-rasp shrieks. This is crudeness as an art form. Spectral Wound are now the keepers of the black flame. There is zero nostalgia here. This is true modern black metal, but also exactly what 90's black metal was. I'm going to go ahead and predict that this will be my black metal AotY. It would take truly herculean effort to make better black metal than this. A Diabolic Thirst by SPECTRAL WOUND

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

This album answers an incredibly important question: What if Rick Deckard was a goth? A goth replicant that could pass the Voight-Kampff test easily. More importantly, it provides a stunning backdrop to the writing I am supposed to be doing, but keep avoiding. French composer James Kent has always been something of a polarizing figure. Much of his earlier work has been very HOTLINE MIAMI style synthwave. This is most definitely NOT THAT. Instead you a weird robot sex soundtrack - a post-punk mood piece cloaked in goth rock nihilism and sexual malevolence. Gritty, misanthropic, but still atmospheric and ambient, this is some nice stuff! Lustful Sacraments by PERTURBATOR

Trumpet of Amdusias

Search This Blog