"Due to some violent content, parental discretion is advised" these words start off track three and it couldn't be more true, thus just makes you wanna smash things! ANAAL NATHRAKH, their debut album was released in 2001 and before this I had never heard them. Recently, I saw a lot of people talking about these guys on the Twitters and was wondering what all the hoopla was about so I decided to check it out. I have never associated Metal Blade Records with Black Metal, they're normally the home of the big Death Metal albums you hear about so this was another surprising treat.

The albums intro is a 3 minute instrumental, "Acheronta Movebimus" that gives you the first taste of what's to come and the first thing that threw me off was the electronic part (dubstep but not really dubstep) and I was thinking, please don't tell me I just got myself into some Dubstep Black Metal that'll make me want to pull a Dead (MAYHEM). So after this the first real track "Unleash" kicks in, the vocals are a little overpowered but it gets better. The vocals are straight up Black Metal, solid evil spin chilling screams. Here was the shocker, whoa... Clean vocals!?! Guess I've listened to enough ENSLAVED to not be overly surprised. "A Firm Foundation Of Unyielding Despair" features a lot and would explain this band better than I ever could. Insane double bass, killer guitar riffs, not shockingly inaudible bass guitar, deadly true kvlt Black Metal vocals and a small electronic section that'll almost make you not care for the band but it's not long enough to make you turn the song off. "Ita Mori" closes out the album, the song slowly builds in, features one of the most incredible Black Metal screams I've ever heard (but it doesn't compare to Dani Filth) and it demolishes a path through your hearing. All this happens in the first 30 seconds too. About halfway through the song the guitars turn incredibly melodic, and the drums are stupid im not surprised there's no drummer to this band no one could play that! In the last 45 seconds there's another Electronic section that doesn't quite kill the flow, but it does take away from the song a little bit, and the song ends abruptly. One second its this, and then it's not.

This is the band everyone has been talking about and I can see why, its a little unorthodox in the way of Black Metal but these days that's how you have to be in order to stand out and ANAAL NATHRAKH sure as hell stand out.