Anaal Nathrakh - Passion

The constantly impressive, steadily productive and gradually augmented British duo serves yet another misanthropic/ chaotic piece of act, a hit and run crime scene. In the Constellation of the Black Widow held a success beyond compare; Passion strives to maintain the bar at the level of a height alike.

This fresh release is indeed an extension of its predecessor. Actually, things are somewhat more complicated: the Anaal Nathrakh sound has been, after the Domine Non Es Dignus, a mixture of black metal & grindcore, as it is commonly referred to. The grindcore fundament has certainly shaped their musical aesthetics to date, a key fundament present in Passion.  As for its very relation to ICOTBW, the structure is similar; the composing process follows the same footsteps. The main aesthetical experience though is slightly different, as Passion’s tunes are not as memorable or catchy as the predecessor’s ones, in other words, the mainstream-esque feel is less intense, an underground – esque touch is continuous. Naturally, having in mind that the album’s immediacy is weaker, this leads to a darker, more claustrophobic release. Actually, this characteristic ‘sadomasochist’ feel the duo’s songwriting emits, comes renewed, refreshed. Passion is claustrophobic, nevertheless. It’s as if one is cornered, tested, tortured, raped (this mostly runs Anaal Nathrakh in whole).

What most Anaal Nathrakh releases feature is, naturally, and thankfully, chaos. At first, one may get the wrong idea, that the duo only inputs chaos in its breed, a musical tactic that would seemingly be in accordance with the nihilistic face the will to depict. This evaluation though, is incorrect, as these British totally and musically apply the ‘ordo ab chao’ theory, for when dismantling their patterns, it is quite prominent that this ostensible (and phenomenal) chaos is deeply organized and intelligently structured (Post Traumatic Stress Euphoria is a fine example of chaos, delivered).

As for the album’s essence, the very musical density could be thicker, I guess. V.I.T.R.I.O.L‘s crying is, naturally, heart piercing. The distorted screaming could be of nothing less. As for the (however impressive) clean singing, which has been rendered an aesthetical registered AN’s trade - mark, one should discriminate: At parts, Mr. Dave Hunt serves one of his greatest performances on clean singing (Drug Fucking Abomination – Passion’s most remarkable track, if you ask me -  and Paragon Pariah illustratively exemplify this). The performance is natural, comes of an inspirational necessity. There are, on the other hand, parts when this singing feels quite artificial, pretentious (e.g. Le Diabolique Est L’ami Du Simple). Furthermore, Mr. Kenney’s riffage is overall thick, tight. However, there are compositions that actually extract an artistic indifference and certainly are unequal (in terms of ‘quality’) when compared to others. Apart from this, the essentially concluding composition (Ashes Screaming Silence – Portrait of the Artist is a noise-based outro) is a strictly mid tempo rhythm – oriented piece, adding to the atmosphere and slightly spicing up the album’s variety. The drawback this release features is that it could be even better. The tight orchestration of the very first ideas (the primordial material), the ripped off atmosphere, the impressive gut - puking performance are all in place. Additionally, there are compositions that are beyond greatness. This just doesn’t apply to the album in whole. So, the drawback is nothing but part of the primordial material, part of the pre-ideas stuff (e.g. the very first conceiving of a mediocre riff, not the edition that follows). That’s all.

The band has chosen to not publish any lyrical content. Their will is to be respected, however, the concept that the duo seems to occupy themselves with (e.g. Nietzsche’s teachings, it has also leaked that Nostradamus’ quotes have been summoned) is fairly interesting, (all these matters would be misanthropically and nihilistically seen after all, in correlation to the band’s thesis), thus, one can only speak of an unfortunate choice. Lastly, the album’s cover aptly represents its musical content, which is violent, the least.

Anaal Nathrakh’s manifesto in 2011 is bearing the emotionally charged Passion title. The release is indeed a passionate one, which could merely have been yet potent, yet mighty. The album is claustrophobic, misanthropic, violating; the ambience is eerie, bleak. The sound is modern and urban.  The characteristically shaped aesthetics are back, in a less catchy way. It’s the way of the Nathrakh, it’s the way of all chaos – enjoy.

7.5 Stelios (Ω)