England’s Anaal Nathrakh have been kicking the snot out of extreme metal fans worldwide, since the late 90’s.  I was late to their camp, due to the impossibility of being able to afford every release.  Thanks to Graham Landers, from Deepsend Records, for recommending them to me some years ago.  I remember getting a Christmas giftcard and bought their entire discography.  Guess that was about 4 years ago and they zoomed to the very top of my favorite bands.  Anaal Nathrakh, for the unknown listener, blends genres of: grindcore, death metal, symphonic black metal and industrial metal.  Highly original and never boring, they are one of the most extreme bands ever!!

Their last 2 albums Desideratum and Vanitas were pretty killer; however, some of their catchier, memorable vocal patterns and songs, were kind of put on the back burner, which many fans were yearning for, until now…. The Whole of the Law is Anaal Nathrakh’s 9th album and harnesses their catchiness, epic qualities of their earlier works.  As punishing as ever, the band has delivered one of the finest albums for 2016 and best albums in their catalog.  “The Nameless Dread”, is an intro, creating ambience and intrigue with the audio sample and music, before the epic beginning of “Depravity Favours the Bold”, comes crashing through your speakers with brilliant background haunting chorals and Dave’s insane vocals erupt around you with screams and some of his screams have a little Udo, from classic Accept, ring to them. The brilliant higher symphonic vocal tones at the 2 minute mark are exceptional and you will smile from ear to ear.

Mick Kenney continues to be the innovator behind the band’s musical soundscapes.  The drum programming is magnificent and the guitars are viciously heavy and some of the bass guitar bleeds through the chaos every once in a while. “Hold Your Children Close and Pray for Oblivion” is such a killer song title and the music is even better.  Killer vocals and insanity abounds, with some vicious and punishing industrial metal beats, before more of the grind comes in just collapsing cities and creating sinkholes worldwide.  Dave’s symphonic, higher registers come through again multiple times and again, as astonishing as ever.  I would like to point out that Anaal Nathrakh, insert some Bile like industrial undertones to the drums and some of Dave’s vocals, during this particular track, have a very Krztoff inspired approach, which is awesome!

“In Flagrante Delicto”, begins with some monstrous samples and some inspired G.G.F.H. [boy I’m pulling out all the stops with obscure band references, with this review], vocals, which are plain evil.  This song is punishingly, devilish and melodic, with some more amazing vocals and rhythms and as heavy as your mother-in-law, after a Christmas feast.  One of the best songs the band has ever written.  But hey, we’re not over yet, mofo’s.  This is the limited edition digibook, with 2 extra songs.  The digibook is exceptionally layed out with explanations of the album concept and lyrical concepts, but is also a taller than average digibook.  The album is written from a demon’s point of view and Anaal Nathrakh’s nihilistic themes are perfect for their musical creation.

One of the bonus tracks is a cover of Iron Maiden’s classic “Powerslave” song, from the album of the same name, and my favorite metal album of all time.  So I hold Powerslave as sacred, Anaal Nathrakh, better not F it up…One thing I want to see bands do is make a cover song their own.  Redoing a song that sounds exactly like the original, to me, is boring.  Anaal Nathrakh took the approach I was looking for and twisted “Powerslave” into their own bastard song from the very depths of hell.  Yes, they incorporate all their blackened grindcore, industrial, chaotic brutality.  The vocals come in perfectly with the drum machine double bass ripping heads off worldwide.  The Maiden guitar melodies come through beautifully.  Dave’s vocals are brilliant, with his brutal lows and his vocals during the chorus are a thing of horrific, brutal, brilliance. Terrific… This is one of the best cover songs ever created, right alongside the heaviest song ever created, Hail of Bullets, monstrous cover of Twisted Sister’s “Destroyer”-nothing will ever be heavier than that cover, good god.

Ok, enough of my blathering, get The Whole of the Law. Anaal Nathrakh have delivered the goods with an album so incredibly awesome, it goes toe to toe with their strongest releases, such as In the Constellation of the Black Widow, easily.  Original, destructive, evil, creatively original and most of all godly.  Buy or Die!!

 

 

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