Anaal Nathrakh
Hell Is Empty, and All the Devils Are Here

Shocking.

I can't find any other adjectives to describe this "Hell Is Empty And All The Devils Are Here", the fourth album of the English Anaal Nathrakh, a duo dedicated to fast, fierce, and dehumanized Industrial Black Metal that, over time, has opened up to various influences, incorporating Death and Grindcore elements and developing an authentic war machine capable of razing anything in its path. Everything is spiced up with the electronic samples of Mick Kenney (also known as "Irrumator", who plays all the instruments) and the filtered and distorted voice of Dave "V.I.T.R.I.O.L." Hunt, who, judging by his vocals, seems to live in a state of constant hallucination or nervous breakdown.

The album was released in October 2007 by FETO records, the label of Kenney and Shane Embury (bassist of Napalm Death), who played bass parts on the last two LPs of Anaal Nathrakh (in fact, FETO is the acronym for "From Enslavement To Obliteration", the second album of the historic English grindcore band, pure coincidence?).

The evolutionary process that has affected each of the band's releases, starting from the early raw demos, anchored to the original Black Metal, reaches its completion in this "Hell Is Empty...", eliminating some of the naiveties that sporadically popped up in their early works: if in "The Codex Necro" (their 2001 debut) they relied too much on an impenetrable wall of noisy sound, with a drum machine blasting at full throttle that at times recalled the extreme experiments of Agoraphobic Nosebleed (no joke!!!), in this latest release (as already occurred in the previous "Eschaton", from 2006) there is an emphasis on greater dynamism in the guitar riffing, more varied, incisive, and profound, supported by a particularly creative drum machine in terms of rhythmic structures, capable of quickly shifting from a cadenced and slow tempo to a frantic blastbeat (as happens in the last two tracks, the terrifying "Sanction Extremis (Will Them All)" and "Castigation And Betrayal"). This does not mean that Anaal Nathrakh has become less abrasive and cold: the inhuman violence (or would it be better to say "Anti-Human"?) and the martial impact have not decreased by a gram; rather, they have been even accentuated, given the greater mastery of their own artistic prowess and instruments.

As in every reputable release from the group, the lyrics of the songs are not published, but those who know the band well know what they're in for: the lyrics, rendered completely incomprehensible by V.I.T.R.I.O.L.'s singing during listening, are focused on themes like the apocalypse, hatred towards humans, and the decadence that prevails in the modern era.

The riffing is as icy as early Mayhem ("Der Holle Rache Kocht In Meinem Herzen") but sharp and mechanical like Fear Factory's Demanufacture era ("Until The World Stops Turning"), with evident crust and grind influences (as in the verse of "Shatter The Empyrean" and the chorus of "Screaming Of The Unborn") and even thrash (the aforementioned "Der Holle Rache Kocht In Meinem Herzen" or in the frantic "Virus Bomb"). A characteristic of the compositions are the choruses, epic, dramatic, and even catchy, in stark contrast to the frenzied verses (see the already mentioned "Virus Bomb" and "Shatter The Empyrean", but also "The Final Absolution"), sung either clean or with alien choirs.

The production is excellent, clear, and allows the listener to perceive every single instrument and electronic effect, to be discovered listen after listen.

A sense of imminent catastrophe, an overwhelming apocalyptic atmosphere, reigns over the entire work, as if at any moment all the infernal creatures were to appear on earth to dominate and subjugate humans to their every whim: in such a case, a title like "Hell Is Empty And All The Devils Are Here" (the translation of the album's title) truly does justice to a work of such caliber.

Distressing, electronic, inhuman, dark, visionary, halfway between horror and science fiction, "Hell Is Empty And All The Devils Are Here" contends for the title of best extreme album of 2007. With all due respect to the releases from Relapse and Roadrunner Records, in my opinion, this album represents the pinnacle of extreme metal of last year. An ideal soundtrack for surviving in a wild and barbaric society like today's (eeeeeh, exaggerated!), it's an album to buy with eyes closed for all lovers of the sounds described here: for everyone else, there's always Anna Tatangelo singing "Il mio amico"... just kidding, more or less...