Anaal Nathrakh - Passion

Homemade, DIY bands are becoming increasingly popular, but finding one of any significant value is almost impossible, as nowadays any old turd with a guitar and ProTools can make "music" while taking a shit. Bands like Cloudkicker and Agoraphobic Nosebleed have mastered the craft of "bedroom metal", but no one does it quite as ferociously and epically as Anaal Nathrakh. This necrotizing duo of esoteric filth are still leading the pack of grind infused black metal, and their sixth offering, Passion, is definitely no exception.


To me, Anaal Nathrakh are the epitome of heavy fucking music. The riffs are chaotic and catchy, the drums blisteringly fast, and the vocals visceral and ear shattering. It's the soundtrack to the end of the world; as earthquakes and volcanoes erupt, spewing molten lava and raining fire down upon us all in our last harrowing and torturous moments of life, V.I.T.R.I.O.L. will be shrieking in our ears while Mick Kenney shreds us into oblivion. It's just pure evil at its core and I can't help but smile and bang my head.

Passion picks up right where In the Constellation of the Black Widow left off. It starts off slow, with a soft ominous "melody" pouring off of the guitar strings before building to the lighting speed cacophony of sickening black metal that the band is known for. It's such a perfect and epic introduction to the album that it kind of makes your skin crawl. There's even a nice little break at the forefront of the brutality for V.I.T.R.I.O.L. to spew his torturous "strangled cat" shriek all over your face. Honestly, his vocal performance is what really makes Anaal Nathrakh stand out from the pack. Alternating between high-pitched painful shrieks and his trademark choir chants that add a whole new dimension to the depth and atmosphere the band has cultivated over its career.

Passion is definitely the culmination of everything the band has done to date. It harkens back to the early days, when they were almost a straight forward black metal band, but keeps and expands on the grooves they have come to be known for (most notably on my personal favorite record of theirs Hell is Empty, and All the Devils are Here). "Drug-Fucking Abomination" is probably the best example of this. A seven-and-a-half minute epic that pans their entire career, it starts off with a slow pounding groove and slowly evolves into their trademark tremolo picking fury of black metal infused grind. And of course, the chorus is as epic as they come, with Kenney shredding out bold dissonant chords and V.I.T.R.I.O.L. chanting with the power of 1,000 vikings behind him. Then of course there's "Ashes Screaming Silence", which very literally starts with a machine gun breakdown (I'm not just coining some phrase to describe the quickness of the notes, it actually starts with a machine gun blasting out the breakdown) and just fucking grooves for four minutes straight. [And is it just me, or is Corporate Death doing backing vocals on "Tod Huetet Uebel"?]

Something I feel I should definitely touch on is their use of a drum machine in lieu of an actual human. While I am usually opposed to this, Anaal Nathrakh do an extremely good job of keeping the rhythms tasteful and not too unrealistic. Yes, they are Superman fast and uncompromisingly heavy, but in any live setting (of which there are very few) they're still able to be pulled off by the right human drummer (Tony Laureno or George Kollias come to mind). As the sole composer of all the music, including the drum programming, Mick Kenney truly is a master of his craft, and has created a style of extreme metal that's all its own and has yet to be replicated.

In the end, Passion is another SOLID offering from one of the most prominent bands in the increasingly vague metal genre. They can do everything from tumultuous black metal, to blistering grind, to breakdowns, to almost-beautiful clean sung choruses and make it all sound like it's right where it all should be. Nothing is out of place, and with music this esoteric, it's awesome to see that at least one band can do it and do it well.

9/10

Track Listing:
1. Volenti Non Fit Iniuria
2. Drug-Fucking Abomination
3. Post Traumatic Stress Euphoria
4. Le Diabolique Est L'ami Du Simplement Mal
5. Locus of Damnation
6. Tod Huetet Uebel
7. Paragon Pariah
8. Who Thinks of the Executioner?
9. Ashes Screaming Silence
10. Portrait of the Artist

Favorite Song: Drug-Fucking Abomination