ANAAL NATHRAKH: “THE WHOLE OF THE LAW”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Oct 272016
 

Anaal Nathrakh-The Whole of the Law

 

(DGR reviews the new album by the UK’s Anaal Nathrakh, which will be released by Metal Blade on October 28.)

Few bands out there these days have weaponized music like Anaal Nathrakh has. The long-running project now has an immense collection of albums in its discography — all of which are some combination of abrasive noise, destructive instrumentation, and annihilation on the lyrical front.

Anaal Nathrakh are a band whose very formation is based around the idea of being as noisy as possible. If heavy metal is to be treated as a form of catharsis, then the aims of Nathrakh are to be the ultimate form of that in rage. For all of this talk of destruction, however, there are the occasional signs of where this anger comes from (considering this is a band that doesn’t provide lyrics to its albums and even then could probably save ink doing so since half of its vocal lines seem to lack consonants), which has been largely driven by a disgust with humanity and where the species is headed. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DARKTHRONE, ANAAL NATHRAKH, AUROCH, RUDRA, MARTRÖÐ, WOLF’S HUNGER

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Aug 182016
 

Darkthrone-Arctic Thunder

 

This harried compiler of new music is especially harried today. I’m in the middle of a quick trip to Denver with not much free time on my hands. But the last 24 hours have brought so many good new songs that I want to throw them your way even at the cost of not getting to spill as many words about them as I would like.

And I’m concluding this collection with a somewhat older song debut that I’ve only just discovered.

DARKTHRONE

As we previously reported within an hour of the announcement, Norway’s Darkthrone will be releasing a new album entitled Arctic Thunder (named for an old Norwegian band of the same name). Based on comments by Fenriz about the album, as well as its cover art, I speculated that we might be on the verge of an enticing return to the sound of the band’s earlier days. Well, now we have more than speculation to go on, because at 11:00 Eastern time here in the U.S., Darkthrone debuted a song from the album — the name of which is “Tundra Leech“. Continue reading »

SHOW REVIEW: ANAAL NATHRAKH, INCITE, SECRETS OF THE SKY, PLAGUE WIDOW

 Concert Reviews  5 Responses »
May 262015
 

 

(DGR prepared this review of a show in Sacramento, California on May 11, 2015.)

I’ve often joked about my living in Sacramento as being an unfortunate situation and something of a curse. Sacramento, which could easily be described as a pretend big city and the world’s largest cow town, often within the same breath, is a city that up until the past three years or so would rarely get many touring acts rolling through town. Most of the time, those tours would hit the big cities (you know, the ones they actually care enough to include on a map of California because stuff happens there, unlike us, who get preferential treatment because we are the capitol) and then quickly jet away from the desolate wastelands of this state.

The local scene has always been vibrant but even now, with a whole bunch of venues in town and multiple concerts that likely would have NEVER rolled through before those venues came to Sacramento, I still find myself surprised. Sometimes, the stars align and we even manage to pull off something incredibly insane — like Anaal Nathrakh coming to podunk-ass Sacramento and playing in a venue the size of a large kitchen. Continue reading »

MDF BLOG BREAK (PART 3)

 Concert Reviews  18 Responses »
May 252015
 

 

Alas, our revels now are ended. Maryland Deathfest XIII is over and in the history books, and it was an amazing experience. I’ve got to pack up and vacate my hotel room soon, and I don’t have nearly enough time at the moment to say everything I want to say. For now, I’ll show you some photos I took from the first three performances I saw yesterday (the last day of the festival), with a few words about each of those first bands I saw on Sunday. More pics and words will come in the next few days.

 

PRIMORDIAL

 I arrived late to the Edison Lot and missed the first four bands of the day, but caught all of Primordial’s set — which floored me. Alan Averill is an amazingly intense and charismatic front man, and his voice is an instrument of incredible power and passion. In the category of clean vocals, he probably took the prize for the fest, though ICS Vortex performing with Arcturus the night before was a very close second. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2014’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 2

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014  16 Responses »
Dec 252014
 

 

Welcome to Part 2 of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. For the other songs we’ve previously named to the list, go here. Today we add two more songs.

MISERY INDEX

There was really never any doubt that one of the songs from The Killing Gods would appear on this list — “Fucking flawless” was the way TheMadIsraeli summed up his review of the album for our site. The hard part was deciding which song.

“The Harrowing” received support from some of our readers as well as my comrade DGR, who prized the song’s speed as well as the awesome solo in the middle of the track. But after repeatedly bouncing back and forth between that song and the one I ultimately chose, I’m going with “Conjuring the Cull”. I’ll just repeat here what I excitedly exclaimed upon first hearing the song: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (Part 2): PRIMORDIAL, DECLINE OF THE I, A PREGNANT LIGHT, ISKRA, ANAAL NATHRAKH

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Oct 232014
 

 

Here’s the second part of a round-up of new things that I began earlier today, collecting some of the news and music I discovered over the last 24 hours that I thought would be worth your time, because they were worth mine.

PRIMORDIAL

Where Greater Men Have Fallen is the name of the new Primordial album, due for release by Metal Blade on November 25. The title track premiered previously, and a couple of days ago Stereogum premiered another song, “Come the Flood”.  It’s powerfully heart-wrenching and melancholy in its atmosphere, driven at first by heavy, thumping drumbeats and a flowing curtain wall of guitars, and later by percussion that sounds like gunshots and a vital lead guitar melody. But at the center of the song is its most arresting feature — Nemtheanga’s  high, soul-stirring, dramatic voice. Amazing.

Listen here (Primordial’s FB page is at this location):

http://www.stereogum.com/1713126/primordial-come-the-flood-stereogum-premiere/mp3s/ Continue reading »

ANAAL NATHRAKH: “DESIDERATUM”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Oct 172014
 

 

(DGR reviews the new album by Anaal Nathrakh.)

It’s probably telling that, lately, Anaal Nathrakh’s discography has become the soundtrack to just about everything that I’ve done. It’s the drive to work soundtrack, and the drive home after the shitshow routine is completed eight hours later. When people portray heavy metal as music consisting of catharsis, Anaal Nathrakh immediately springs to mind as a band whose very reason for existence is to let anger out — both from the musicians in the band and from the fans around them — in one expulsion of energy. A gamma burst from a dying star of utter negativity.

Anaal Nathrakh have built their career out of being as abrasive as humanly possible. As a latecomer to the band, it has been fun to go back through their career and experience the inordinate amount of inhuman noise and utter abstract madness that this duo have unleashed since their formation. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ANAAL NATHRAKH, BEYOND CREATION, DEMONIC RESURRECTION, HATE ETERNAL, MALEVOLENT CREATION, NUCLEAR PERVERSION

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Oct 152014
 

 

As I write this I am sitting on an airplane at about 40,000 feet somewhere over the Rocky Mountains. I am having to fly across the country because of my fucking day job, and once I get where I’m going, I will have to fucking work — pretty much day and night until I make it back to Seattle on Saturday night.

I tell you this not to pique your curiosity — because I can’t tell you what I’m doing, or I could, but would then have to kill you — but as an explanation of why there will be some scarcity in our posts between now and Sunday. Also, the “Seen and Heard” title is only half true:

The wi-fi on this plane isn’t good enough to let me stream music, so I actually haven’t heard anything — other than the guy sitting next to me snorting his phlegm every 10 minutes, the dude in front of me snoring, and the dull roar of the engines. Also, I have to fucking work on the plane beginning pretty damned soon.

Well, enough of my whining. Here are some things I’ve seen in my scampering through the inter hole this morning, and some things I would like to hear when I have the chance. Continue reading »

ANAAL NATHRAKH PREMIERE “MONSTRUM IN ANIMO” FROM “DESIDERATUM”

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Sep 172014
 

 

Last month Anaal Nathrakh premiered “Idol”, the first advance track from their new album Desideratum, which is coming from Metal Blade on October 28. And today Decibel premiered a second song — “Monstrum In Animo”.

If you’re in the mood for a violent, howling, skin-flying barrage of blackened industro-alien-grind-demolition with concrete-splitting grooves and lead-melting soloing, you damned well need to hear this, because I don’t know where else you would be able to get that fix. It sure as hell did the job for me.

This is an exclusive stream, so you’ll need to go here to listen to the song — as well you should: Continue reading »

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