Anorexia Nervosa
Drudenhaus

These guys are totally crazy. Yes, Anorexia Nervosa, a French band dedicated to Symphonic Black Metal, in this album showcase their madness-infused arsenal of rage, hatred, and subtle and creeping melody in a decidedly successful mix, I would say. The full-length, Drudenhaus, is their second album after Exile and was released in 2000; the line-up consists of five members: Maître Stefan Bayle the guitarist, Nilcas Vant the drummer, Rose Mother Sucking Hreidmarr (where do they get these names??) the singer, Pierre Couquet the bassist, and finally, last but not least, the newcomer Neb Xort, keyboardist and violinist; this ambitious member is the true pillar of the album as keyboards are used for the first time in their sound.

As mentioned initially, listening is believing. Starting with "A Doleful Night In Thelema", we immediately understand that these guys are not joking at all, at times they even seem scary with their horrible spasmodicity that most of the songs are imbued with. This first track greatly highlights the use of keyboards, and immediately starts with a violent and perhaps somewhat exuberant rhythm; followed by the entry of vocals, which, I say seriously, are chilling: high-pitched and grating tones that once they start seem never to stop and seem to want to torture our eardrums. In any case, they are excellent for the album's atmosphere. The guitars... Those might be the only weak point (but not too much) of the ensemble, perhaps because they are barely heard or perhaps because they are not overly used... There is no guitar solo of significant value or worthy of note, nonetheless, they are still fundamental (are they really??). We then move on to "The Drudenhaus Anthem": and this is one of the most recommended tracks, it might resemble the previous song in some aspects, but it's one of the masterpieces I wish to highlight; melodic intro, fast, obsessive, violent, and sweet at the same time (the band manages to perfectly combine these opposing elements with results worthy of a standing ovation), with the usual voice that never abandons us and the hearing is forced to endure this pleasant and enchanting torment. Continuing with the slower "God Bless The Hustler" and we don't lose any interest in listening; AN inserts extra elements within every song to make them more original and different from each other; here we hear piercing wails about halfway through the song, which then culminate in delightful cries of horror. So far everything is in order, everything with such a sadistic and evil flavor, so brilliantly terrifying, and it continues with "Enter The Church Of Fornication", an excellent, sublime song with a dark intro, played with the organ; from time to time, about three times, the rhythm slows with the execution of the instruments, perhaps to let us catch our breath... But only for a while, then the screams and instruments start up again, without losing even slightly the sustained pace kept so far. Needless to say, this is also an excellent chapter for the album.

But we slightly lose interest with the next two tracks: "Tragedia Dekadencia" and "Divine Light Of A Cumming Decadence", the first is nice for the half-minute keyboard intro, very suggestive and melancholic, followed by guitars and screams... The track is slower and sometimes we hear some choirs barely making an appearance; the keyboard solo intermezzo is spot on; the second has nothing worth mentioning in particular, only the melodies change and the initial beauty that we enjoyed in the preludes of the album begins to fade. Fortunately, AN manages to capture our attention once again with the last three songs. "Dirge & Requiem For My Sister Whore" captures our curiosity, Das Ist Zum Erschiessen Schön is of a lower level than the previous one, and the ninth "The Red Archromance", another of the best of the album and Neb Xort's favorite, closes in a worthy manner this excellent work called Drudenhaus, to which I attribute a nice 4 for the grandeur with which AN managed to produce this more than appreciable (and sadistic) work for genre enthusiasts.