Anaal Nathrakh - Passion

Published May 16 2011

*=Staff's pick	Violenti Non Fit Inuria* Drug-Fucking Abomination Post Traumatic Stress Euphoria* Le Diabolique Est L'ami Du Simplement Mal Locus Of Damnation Tod Huetet Uebel Paragon Pariah* Who Thinks Of The Executioner? Ashes Screaming Silence Portrait Of The Artist

Genre	Grindcore	V.I.T.R.I.O.L.	Vocals
Tracks	10	Irrumator	Guitar
Runningtime	36 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Candlelight Records	Irrumator	Bass
Release	17 May 2011	Irrumator	Drums
Country	England	-	Keyboard
Producer	-
Similar artists	---

Anaal Nathrakh from Birmingham can easily be counted as one of the more extreme bands within the metalscene, and the band has always managed to keep this reviewer interested in the music by writing really strong songs where the grindelement is very evident, but also those little subtleties that makes you really enjoy the sonic onslaught being poured into the ears.

I very much enjoyed the preceding records to Passion, Hell Is Empty And All The Devils Are Here from 2007, and In The Constellation Of The Black Widow from 2009, and I really had very high expectations on Passion. To say that they were fulfilled would be a understatement.

The record starts off good with Violenti Non Fit Inuria with plenty of feedback and very sparse guitar before the really heavy part kicks in. I very much appreciate that Anaal Nathrakh have the good sense to incorporate these more groove-oriented parts in the mostly totally grinding music the group is known for.

But even when the purely aggressive playing is on, the band manages to keep some melodies, mostly by V.I.T.R.I.O.L.'s singing often enough coupled with really effective and beautiful guitarharmonies from multiinstrumentalist Irrumator.

The music you get from this is very effective and suggestive, and I really like it. Throughout the record I often catch myself thinking that the vocal delivery is really good, and is what lifts Passion from the "good" to the "excellent" level. When you get screaming (which there is plenty of) you get screams that really makes the hair stand up.

In fact you rarely get a singer like V.I.T.R.I.O.L. that has that purely haunting style of singing. This is music that is devastating in its expression, uncompromising in its delivery rendering a brilliant end result that very much gives the finger to mainstream music, and then some!

I can basically only complain about one thing - the singing in Tod Huetet Uebel gets a bit too much for me. Other than that Passion is a thoroughly strong record, and it should make people into extreme music shake their heads. It certainly made me.

See also review of: The Whole Of The Law , Desideratum , Vanitas

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
8	7	9	8	8

Summary
8 chalices of 10 - Martin