Customer Reviews

Eschaton (Dig)

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The first thing you will notice about Anaal Nathrakh's new album 'Eschaton' is that it returns to the brutal pace of 'The Codex Necro' while further developing the unique songwriting of 'Domine Non Es Dignus.' What could have been the best black metal album ever written really winds up being a good grindcore album with black metal influences. Its clear where the band is going as many segments of 'Eschaton' sound suspiciously similar to Napalm Death's new album 'Smear Campaign' which is not surprising, considering members of Napalm helped to record Eschaton and also have played live sessions with Anaal Nathrakh.

Half of the band (Mick Kenney) is completely disinterested in any intellectual aspects of the band's message and focuses solely on song writing, while the other half (Dave Hunt) seems completely obsessed with it, so much so that he feels other people are unworthy of reading his lyrics.

At the time of this writing, Anaal Nathrakh has still not released their lyrics, and although Eschaton's lyrics are more comprehensible than older albums (mainly due to improved production quality), it is still impossible to discern all of the words. Lyrical themes seem to center around intensely violent meditations on Judeo-Christian hypocrisy, moral corruption, and the end of the world (initiated by grubby divine fumbling and self-righteousness). The lyrics contain excerpts from Nietzsche's 'The Gay Science', The Resistance to Christianity by Raoul Vaneigem, the Judeo-Christian bible, The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers, Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan and more. Hunt also seems to have a fascination, if not belief in the 'timewave zero' (the time at which existence will end), and believes the Mayan calender to be accurate in estimating this point in time to be "the 21st of december, 2012, the end of all" (sung in the track Timewave Zero).

The song titles have pretentious titles which reference some obscure aspect of Eschatology, which is the study of the end of the world, or phrases from literature. Normally I would accept the holding of lyrics (as is the case with some other black metal projects such as Xasthur, Leviathan and Diabolical Masquerade) if the band is a personal project worked upon for personal reasons, but its clear that Anaal Nathrakh is at least somewhat interested in selling their records to the masses gaging by Hunt's adamant anti-piracy stance. Worrying about a paycheck is not a black metal pursuit.

Regardless, Eschaton is a solid album, showcasing some very impressive musicianship. Returned is the classical 'Codex Necro' brutality of absolute wanton carnage and violence in the form of vicious grindcore blast beats, vile, misanthropic, insane, shrieking vocals, and inhumanly fast, shredding, evil sounding guitars. While Anaal Nathrakh did want to return to the brutality which made it famous in the first place, Kenney also intended to continue to innovate. All the tracks on Eschaton sound unique from one another, for better or for worse, and include innovative use of guitars to create a refreshing, nearly avant-garde experience.

Most impressive is the presence of the best guitar solos I have ever heard in metal, performed by Kenney on several tracks. Guitar solos are few and far between in black metal and grindcore, and for good reason: they often disrupt the flow and tension of the music. Somehow Kenney manages to flawlessly integrate vicious, incredibly fast, unique sounding guitar solos into the multi-layered chaos which is Eschaton without awkwardness and always in the right spots as to keep things varied.

Hunt's vocals are as impressive as ever and are still my favorite vocals in extreme metal. One wonders if Anaal Nathrakh would even be considered black metal at all if the band had another singer. Hunt's intoxicating, vengeful misanthropy is one of the main reasons why Anaal Nathrakh is often pegged as a black metal outfit - not explorations into the darkness of the human soul through instrumentation. You will find no introspective interludes here, no depressive bitter reflections, seldom melodics, just vicious violence, reminiscent of the grindcore influenced band 1349 or the creators of grind itself, Napalm Death. At a few points in Eschaton Hunt sings in clean vocal style, which I found to be unnecessary, but the rest of his performance is better than ever.

Bellum Omnium Contra Omnes is the first black metal sing along in history, starting off with 'god is f*cking bull*hit' you know its going to be heart racing. I suspect that if this song was ever played live there would at least be a minor riot, and the venue would probably be destroyed.

Holy headbang, Batman! This cd is the aural equivalent of running with scissors. Any good parent of a small child would snatch this cd right out of the rug-rat's hands while uttering the cliché phrase "you'll put your ears out, kid!"

Anaal is a dirty black metal, thrash / sorta grindcore outfit from the UK made up of two guys named Irrumator and V.I.T.R.I.O.L, and has in the past utilized a programmed percussion section to manufacture the brutal, crushing wall of noise that are their trademark. For this album, they supposedly have recruited a live drummer. Whether or not this is the case, or even whether this guy has biomechanical arms, the result is pure smashing, relentless, blast beat grind.

I have to admit that grindcore or thrash have never been my kind of thing. This band, however, seems to be able to blend in just enough black metal "The Necrogeddon" and melodic death flavor "Waiting for the Barbarians" / "When the Lion devours both Dragon and Child" to make me not only like this, but get it on my list.

The album kicks off with plenty of black metal riffing courtesy of Irrumator and V.I.T.R.I.O.L screaming like his ass is on fire. The "machine" is doing its thing. Whether the "machine" is an actual machine or Danny Hererra (Napalm Death), I cannot be sure. All I know is that it is going at least 300 plus beats per minute. There are many songs like this. But wait! Something new! There are a few songs on this album that aren't a relentless barrage for a second or two, (The Yellow King), and they are good! There are (gasp) some clean vocals in there too (Timewave Zero / When the Lion...). This is interesting, very different for this band. -Ok, back to the scull pummeling with the next track. I was just starting to miss it. I'm so screwed trying to review this band. I guess I'll just have to wait, hear them live, and see if their drummer explodes.

this is the consagration of the band a very explosive riffs and blast beats non stop till the end,schizophrenic vocal ,,,,, a must!!!!!!!!!!

The experience of listening to Anaal Nathrakh's third album, Eschaton, is very comparable to that of a person taking their first shot of a Jack Daniels. It isn't crisp and it goes down hard, but in the end it leaves foaming at the mouth and begging for more. Anaal Nathrakh have continued to further their sound in new styles and directions. If I had to sum up Eschaton into one sentence, I would say this is a further progression from Codex Necro into a landscape of pure insanity.

The core elements of the band are still very apparent from the very beginning. The album is very rough around the edges in production area, which is a signature to most black metal bands. The melodies which were introduced in Codex Necro are still very apparent on Eschaton. This isn't an All That Remains album though; the melodies are varied and in no way take away from their brutal sound. The first song to showcase this is the aptly titled, "Between S*** and P*** We Are Born", which I think those two places were my first reaction to the song. The melody just jumps out from nowhere unlike some of the more mainstream metal. The overall sound of the album mixes in the previously mentioned black metal with some hints of Meshuggah (when I say hints I don't mean reliance like Decapitated) and grind like sounds interwoven with it all. All this makes it harder for the average metal listener to truly classify what genre the band belongs in. There are a number of elements that make this album worth listening to.

One of the greatest elements of Eschaton is the length of the album. Paced at a swift 35 minutes, one could argue that this leaves the listener wanting more. However, it has always been of my opinion that I'd much rather be left craving for more of an album than dazed from listening to a 77 minute album that doesn't know when to end the show. The lyrical content of the album is very interesting, if one actually reads the linear booklet anymore. "Timewave Zero" references to the Mayan Eschaton which believes that God will recreate the world for the 7th and final time. "Destroying Angel" is another name for a type of fungi that kills the healthiest of humans upon one bite. If this isn't metal at its most fun and brutal, then I'm a metal fan for the wrong reasons. Both songs are interesting examples in finding ways to deal with the same metal subjects through a different light. Surely, Slayer could take a page from this department.

Quite honestly, I haven't had this much fun listening to an album since Pig Destroyer's Terrifyer, and Anaal Nathrakh has jumped up a few notches in my department. For people that decide not to listen Anaal Nathrakh just because of their name is on par with not dating a girl because her parents were dumb enough to name her after a fruit. Bottom line, the product is worth more than the name.