It would appear that this Norwegian band have taken the US by storm with their debut self-titled album, and I’ve been anxious to find out not only why, but how, considering their name is beyond pronounceable for the average American idiot, not to mention it just took me six hours to type it correctly twice. If you listen to Liquid Metal on satellite radio or Music Choice’s Metal channel, chances are you’ve heard their big hit, “Mjod,” about eleven times today. It is a catchy tune with an anthemic, sing-along quality, but the lyrics not being in English make that part a bit tough for me. The rest of the album is pretty much in the same vein as the single. Straight up Motorhead-influenced Rock with a touch of basic Black Metal a la Enslaved. “Sultans of Satan” is a fairly memorable cut, plus it’s the one song title on the album I can actually say, but I wasn’t ready for them to drop a “Foxy Lady” riff-bomb on me mid-song. I bet if Norway has motorcycle assholes like we do here, this is their new favorite band. Sometimes the album gets too unashamedly radio-ready Rock to take 100% seriously. Norway’s answer to the Foo Fighters, perhaps? Nevertheless, I guess the answer I was searching for as to why they’re so popular here is now evident. It’s completely safe, non-threatening, harder music for the kids to download, even if they have no clue what the hell they’re saying. As simplistic and bare-knuckled as the arrangements are, it should be a lot more memorable than it is. And what little does stick is generally forgotten seconds after the song ends. Don’t get me wrong, it is tolerable, but not much here for the dark side dweller.

In the four years since Arch Enemy’s last new studio album (not counting The Root of All Evil, which was re-recordings of songs from the band’s first three, pre-Angela Gossow, LPs), I may have forgotten how diverse this group can be. There are times here when the drumming is very intense, such as most of the almost Black Metal sounding “Through the Eyes of a Raven,” and occasionally galloping like classic Iron Maiden, but then many other moments where it’s kind of more in a Hard Rock vein. I don’t mean to imply that the variety is necessarily bad, but there were times when I felt that the extremity could have been turned up. Thinking back now, maybe that wouldn’t even be a good idea. In any case, Khaos Legions is somehow instantly memorable, and the songwriting and musicianship on display here are as stunning as the nearly flawless production. Check out the simple, mournful guitar solo at about 3:30 into “City of the Dead” for an amazing example of how less can truly be more. And listen to the clearly audible basslines throughout the album for more being more. Angela’s easily-understandable raspy snarl is unloved by some, but I’ve never had a problem with it or her (even though she may have the most produced vocals this side of Dani Filth), and she really cuts loose a time or two, venturing into rawer territory for an instant. The only thing not to like about this LP is that there are (at least) four different versions of it: The normal CD, with 14 tracks; the Mediabook edition, with a second disc containing four cover songs; the iTunes download with bonus live track; and of course the Japanese CD with two exclusive songs. This multiple-different-versions-of-the-same-album bullshit seems to be getting more and more commonplace, and I can’t be the only one who hates paying for something only to find out that I’m missing part of it.

I’m sure that re-imagining My Dying Bride songs (or parts of songs, whatever) into sparse Orchestral/Ambient backgrounds, with Aaron occasionally talking over them and some Opera chick sporadically singing snippets of lyrics (and not in a cool way, if that’s even possible) must have seemed like a good idea to someone. That person needs immediate mental help. In its 2-CD regular edition (or limited edition digibook), Evinta is the most tedious, uninteresting 87 minutes I’ve ever heard. Hearing the fan in my computer spin is infinitely more engaging. I’d say that it was a chore to sit through this album, but while it played I kept forgetting that I was even listening to anything at all, so completely did it fade into the background and onward into oblivion. Please don’t misunderstand and think that I simply don’t like Dark Ambient. I do when the mood strikes me, if it’s interesting (Arcana, Endura to name but two). Evinta, however, is not dark and it’s certainly not interesting, it’s not even annoying or terrible - it’s not anything. The 3-CD deluxe edition is 42 minutes longer, for those who wish for more nothing. I want my 130 fucking minutes back.

I still miss Marduk’s demented old screamer, Legion (and Dread, before him). Mortuus (aka Guy-Who-Is-Not-Legion) tries his best, and at least he’s better in a studio than he is live, which was borderline embarrassing when I saw them late last year. I know that it has been about eight years since Legion was actually a member of this band, but it’s difficult to not think about his influence when listening to these Swedish blasphemers. What I mean by that is Iron Dawn makes my mind wander. Oh sure, the requisite Black Metal speed and intensity are here, except for the pseudo-Industrial slowness of the final of these three tracks, but it’s not at all memorable, and isn’t anything else enough to make up for that. Worse yet, it became more and more of a chore to listen to this with each successive spin, so for once maybe I should have only played it a single time and just gone with an old-fashioned (not that kind of old-fashioned, South Park fans!) ultra-short review like, “Often, but not always, intense, unmemorable Swedish Black Metal from a band living off its once-mighty reputation.”

I’ll admit, I was a little shocked to learn that Old School Death Metal veterans Jungle Rot had signed to Victory Records. Sure, it’s not like they’re a 100% Hardcore label anymore, but they’ll always be tied to it in the minds of many. I did think it was cool, albeit weird, that such a big label would give them a deal considering Jungle Rot have never really found a comfortable home for too long (Pulverizer, Olympic, Crash, Napalm), and they deserve it just about as much as anyone. But would they change their style? What was I worried about, fuck no they haven’t changed their style. This is essentially the same band Adversary shared the stage with in 1995! Frontman Dave Matrise being the only original member, of course. Kill on Command is pure Jungle Rot to the core. Mid-paced, groovy, barbaric, heavy-as-fuck, simple Death Metal. I’m just waiting for some piece of shit to bitch about the breakdowns on this album, given the Victory connection. Someone should play them the Rip Off Your Face demo and show them that Jungle Rot have been doing breakdowns since the only CD they owned was Cypress Hill. Other critics will undoubtedly shit on the album for its lack of technicality and simplistic approach. I like to call those critics “fags.” What matters is that it’s memorable, and anthems like “Blood Ties,” “Demoralized,” and the title track stuck in my head after one listen. I give two shits how many notes you can play in 20 seconds. I’m not trying to suck anyone’s dick backstage, I just want to bang my head. (Metal health’ll drive you mad.)

What the fuck happened here? After providing us with the motherfucking comeback album of the year - if not of all time - with 2009’s Resurrection Macabre, the Dutch Death gods have flipped a total bitch on us. I kept putting off this review for weeks because I wanted to like it. I listened to it repeatedly on several different occasions, in several different moods, trying to force myself to like it. I even put it on after a night of heavy drinking when ALL of my standards are genuinely lower! The fact is, this album fucking sucks. If someone can tell me how a single riff on this album goes, I’ll mail you a fucking dollar. Mameli’s vocals are fucking HORRIBLE. He sounds like Cronos with some kind of malignant esophageal cancer! A pointless intro, the aforementioned vocals of terribleness, and occasional Primus-style bass fuck-arounds are the only elements that stand out on this 40 minutes of supreme disappointment. Maybe not in league with the new Morbid Angel when it comes to Death Metal letdowns, but definitely a close runner up. Or is it possible that it’s even more upsetting when you take into consideration their brilliant return to form of just two years ago? Either way it sucks midget leper shlong. I guess for every Testimony of the Ancients we get, we’re going to have to eat a Spheres afterward. Yucky!

I seem to remember many years ago Ray playing me some of this band’s early works and thinking it was halfway decent, if not a tad unremarkable, Black Metal. Or perhaps that was the Shining from Norway? No matter, neither band is really good enough to warrant a second thought. I do get the impression from the composition alone that these Swedes are genuinely disturbed, and that their suicidally depressed leanings are not an act. Musically this isn’t terrible either, although I do tend to like my suicidal Black Metal bands a bit more suicidal. The real problem here is the vocals. Main man Niklas Kvarforth has no vocal talent whatsoever. His gruff vocals sound like an 80-year old Matti Karki, and his clean voice is 10th rate Ville Valo at best. The fact that the lyrics are not in English does not help his clean vocal cause, either. They could learn a lot from their buddies in Lifelover who pull off this style 50 times better with somehow even less vocal talent. You can do wonders with sheer vibe and feeling alone. Alas, with better vocals, this could’ve placed more in that C+ to B- range, but as is there are just too many quality bands playing this style at a higher level to give a fuck about Shining.

Well, fuck, I should have known that 2009’s return to a more pure Black Metal sound, with the album Above, was too good to last. But I dared to hope that the Samael guys had come to their senses and would stick with that style from then on. I just remember the glory days, damn it! I suppose that I’m making this new album seem like a shit sandwich, and that’s not at all the case. It’s just disappointing to hear these Swiss virtuosos go back to a more Industrial take on Metal, no matter how good they are at it. And they are amazing. There is a hell of a lot to like on this album, including some aggression scattered throughout these songs, like sane people in Indiana: rare but appreciated. Vorph’s generally excellent vocals are, as always, worth mention, too. Mostly, however, Lux Mundi is more about precision and atmosphere than intensity, and that would be fine if I could just get Above’s awesome ass-kickery out of my head for 666 seconds to fully enjoy it.

A little background is in order here. Satan’s Host was started in 1986 by Jag Panzer’s singer, Harry Conklin (under the stage name Leviathan Thisiren), when he decided to do something a little more Satan-positive. Less than two years later, after only one album (Metal from Hell) and an EP (Midnight Wind), he’d had enough, and left to join Titan Force (the band, I mean, not the team of misfits who pilot the Titan Maximum super-robot, which would have been much cooler). Everyone figured that Satan’s Host was over. I mean it was his band and all. Well, him and guitarist Patrick Evil, who reformed SH in 1999 as a Black/Death Metal band with L.C.F. Elixir on vocals. Why did Patrick use the same name for what was stylistically a completely different band? No idea. And now, after more than a decade with five full-length albums, an EP and a DVD of Black/Death Metal, Elixir is out and Conklin is back in. And, yes, Satan’s Host has returned to being Power Metal, or perhaps more accurately, traditional Heavy Metal with really aggressive drumming. What will they do when performing live now? Just not play any of the Elixir-era songs, which comprise the vast majority of the band’s catalog? Or is Conklin going to Power Metalify them? I feel pretty safe in thinking that he’s not going to try to sound like L.C.F. Elixir. All that aside, taken completely by itself, By the Hands of the Devil is solid Heavy/Power Metal, with a tremendous production and the aforementioned aggressive drumming helping Patrick Evil’s riffs considerably. Conklin even does some interesting vocal tricks occasionally, like the excellent multi-tracking near the middle of “Before the Flame.” The bonus track (unknown which versions/formats have it) is a kind of re-imagining of The Beatles “Norwegian Wood” that’s so different from the original that I almost started a flame war on metal-archives.com for daring to refer to it as a cover song.
I had a difficult time figuring out this album, but if you can tolerate Conklin’s vocals, and don’t mind the stylistic flip-flopping, it’s worth the confusion.

Not sure what this bullshit stopgap EP is all about, but it seems to be on some kind of Dodge Dart record label. Probably comes free in a box of cereal or with however many KY Jelly proofs of purchase. As is always the case with Enslaved, it sucks total ass but everyone will absolutely adore it. Thankfully there are only five songs to suffer through, so let’s begin to dissect. First off, I think this is some kind of concept EP about the first gay Vikings and their lives of secrecy in fear of persecution, as the first song seems to depict a dialogue between the homosexual Vikings (clean vocals so soft and faggy I imagine them sung into a baby’s spread asshole), and the angry hetero Vikings (basic Black Metal vocals). I could be completely wrong, but that’s the only way I could make the song even partially interesting. Track two is the perfect virtuoso mixture of early Bathory and John Tesh, while the next two cuts are 12 minutes of instrumental filler, the first of which sounds like a washing machine on spin cycle while a man whispers. Now if that doesn’t define breathtaking, mandatory, genius, and not to mention sexy, I don’t know what the hell does! I could be mistaken, but I believe the last song here is a Folk spin on a Manwell cover. Not “What What (in the Butt)” of course, but one of his older, more underground, songs. Overall, this was easily the most enjoyable recording to listen to in all of Enslaved’s 20-year career. Look for 6 new releases from them before year’s end.

I want to start with what’s good about this DVD, which was recorded live in Sydney, Australia in 2009: it sounds great. Okay, it’s only stereo audio, and not the 5.1 channel Dolby Digital or DTS surround sound I was expecting, which is somewhat disappointing, but what’s here, as I mentioned, sounds great, and is very crisp and clear. Unlike the video. Holy fuck is the video ever over-compressed, with notable pixelation and compression artifacts. It’s not enough to ruin things, but it can be distracting. This is clearly a low-budget (although multiple-camera) recording, and after watching it, I was surprised that it’s even anamorphic widescreen, but thankfully it is. The cinematography… well, I’m sure they tried their best, and I’ll leave it at that, since I don’t like saying anything negative about a legendary band like Malevolent Creation. And the band does deliver the intense Death Metal, as one would expect, making this an enjoyable experience, just far from a perfect one. As with any live album, I wanted to hear a couple songs that weren’t included, but time is always limited, so I understand. And this is a great live set, with an emphasis on the band’s early career. But that said, these guys need some fuckin’ quality control. In addition to the video/audio issues, the track list on the DVD cover is wrong, omitting three songs on the disc (“Monster,” “Multiple Stab Wounds,” and “Homicidal Rant”), and misnaming another (it’s “Manic Demise,” not “Man’s Demise”). The audio from this was released separately on CD as Australian Onslaught in late 2010, and it’s possible that the unlisted DVD songs were actually edited off of that release to keep the duration short enough to fit on a single CD… Malevolent Creation deserves a better DVD than this, and maybe one day it’ll actually happen. In the meantime, we’ll have to take what we can get.

I have listened to this album over and over, literally dozens of times, trying to sort out what to say about it. I’ve been a huge fan of this legendary Spanish Goregrind band from the very beginning, and was overjoyed to discover that they had signed to Relapse. It’s a step up for Haemorrhage, which I had hoped would also mean a larger recording budget. Apparently that was not the case. The songs are amazing, and as well-written and memorable as ever, which is no surprise, since that’s the band’s trademark, after all. Check out “911 (Emergency Slaughter)” and “Hospital Thieves” for examples of how to write flawless songs. Now if only Relapse had coughed up the money for a recording to do these masterpieces justice. The drum sound is… sub-optimal, let’s say, and is made worse by the mix, which buries the drums altogether at higher tempos. It’s hard to hear the blast beats! That’s just insane, and obviously diminishes the intensity, as does the under-distorted guitar tone. I firmly believe that this is somehow not Haemorrhage’s fault, because these guys (and gal!) are fucking awesome. Remixed and remastered, Hospital Carnage could, and probably would, be a 10, as is…

It can be argued that these Masshole once-Mathcore/once-Alt Rock titans aren’t technically Metal and therefore not suitable for the “pages” of Metal Curse, but if you want to pretend that you don’t like anything but Metal, then I’m going to pretend I’m Darth Vader and choke you with my thoughts. It’s a moot point really since White Silence - their first full length in six years since the thoroughly unnoticed Perfect Pitch Black and first in eight years since the brief major label success of Antenna - pretty much is a Metal album. The problem is it isn’t a very good one. The first two songs are so uncharacteristic of the band at any phase of their career, I had to double check to make sure I put the right CD in. It’s noisy, sloppy, aggro-Sludge like Cursed or Old Man Gloom, or something similarly horrible beyond words. A far cry from peaking at #169 on the Billboard 200. “Sing My Loves” is an epic track that really saves this album from complete worthlessness. Not quite the technically ferocious Metalcore the band started out playing, nor the Radiohead-inspired Alternative style they would eventually evolve towards, but a perfect balance in between. Imagine The Beatles playing Doom Rock! Unfortunately there isn’t much else on the record to savor. “Summit Fever” is a heavy but hummable number that wouldn’t sound too out of place on Creative Eclipses or Jupiter, but that’s about it. Even the acoustic tracks that echo past solo efforts of frontman Stephen Brodsky sound uninspired and thrown together with no emotion. Hopefully this is just one of those clear-the-cobwebs kind of records that sometimes need to exist after a long hiatus and the creative juices will start stirring again soon, but overall, White Silence fails on just about every level. While I’ve got this rare chance to bark about Cave In, I want to take the opportunity to apologize to the band for never printing the interview I did with them a decade ago. My zine [The truly excellent Portrait of Defiance -Editor] went under due to the gayness of the internet and me not being rich. Secondly, to every person at every music mag I’ve ever read that talks about the solid but criminally overrated Until Your Heart Stops like it is the greatest album in the history of time: when it comes to heavy Cave In, Beyond Hypothermia is WAY better. Suck it.

It’s astonishing when you stop and realize how quickly time flies. Consider that Sweden’s Vomitory have been at it for well over 15 years! It seems like Raped in Their Own Blood just hit the shelves yesterday. These Swedes have always been a serviceable source for high quality, grinding Death Metal, churning out albums at a workmanlike pace, yet somehow always lacking that pure anthem. That “Maze of Torment,” that “Twisted Truth,” or that “Reborn in Blasphemy.” Well with album number eight, they have shed much of their trademark speed and brutality in search for that anthem, and the end result is their best effort since the aforementioned debut. Maybe it finally just hit them - boy, we sure do listen to Realm of Chaos and The Rack way more than that new Abysmal Dawn - because the shift towards melody and dynamics at slower tempos is undeniable and more than welcome. Sure there is still speed and of course it is heavy as fuck, and it’s not like they never wrote a decent tune in the past, but with Opus Mortis VIII, the riff comes first. “Regorge in the Morgue” opens the album with a catchy two and a half minute stomp that wouldn’t sound out of place on your favorite Ribspreader album. The next song to grab you by the balls is “The Dead Awaken,” which may finally be the achievement of their anthem. It is without a doubt the best song they’ve ever written, powerfully showcasing all the band have up their sleeve in a quick 5 minutes. Follow that up with “Hate in a Time of War” and it’s Slayeresque clean intro, and you’ve got quite a one-two punch mid-album. “Shrouded in Darkness” is the last song to leave an impression, paying homage to the greatness of Bolt Thrower with war hymn melodies intact over that slow crawl. Every band claims that they’re the most proud of their newest material at the time, and in Vomitory’s case they damn well should be.

This reissue of the 2005 EP is as about as essential as a reissue can get. Not only was the original pressing limited to just 1000 copies, but Neige has actually re-recorded the two epic tracks and included them with the originals. As for the material, it is Alcest, which is to say it is equal parts uplifting and heartbreaking Shoegazer Black Metal. Just like the two nearly flawless full lengths he’s put out since this EP, sorrowful yet beautiful melodies, the perfect mix of soothing clean and harsh Blackened vocals, occasional speed but mostly mid-paced to slow tempos, and pure sadness. Not much can touch Alcest when it comes to sadness, save for Jesu and Katatonia. The odd thing is, a look at the English translation of the lyrics (sung in French) reveals that the majority of the subject matter isn’t really the kind of negative, frostbitten prose you expect with something this suicidal. They’re actually quite innocent, positive lyrics. Not “positive” in the Jesus-fucking vein, I must add. Neige (French for “snow”) is a nature lover, very nostalgic and seemingly tied to mysterious events of his childhood as the lyrics, his interviews, and more thoroughly, the extensive liner notes of the reissue explain. Still, uplifting music I often find to be the most depressing, especially when this man can manipulate a melody at any tempo to the point of simultaneous goosebumps and teardrops at will. The only factor keeping this from absolute perfection is that the re-recorded 2011 versions blow the originals away. Not a lot has changed except for a much higher quality production and superior drumming (Neige played all the instruments including the drums on the original EP), but there is no comparison. Still, I’m glad the originals were included as any completist would be. Hard to find much fault with anything this guy does really.

Oh man, new Morbid Angel! It’s been eight long years since the band’s previous album, Heretic, and sixteen since Domination, the last one with now-returned bassist/singer David Vincent. While he was gone, Vincent was in his wife’s horrible circus sideshow band, Genitorturers, but the less said of that, the better. Illud Divinum Insanus opens with a dull, plodding two-and-a-half minute intro, which gives way to… wait, am I reading that right? The song is called “Too Extreme!”?!? Let me check the rest of the song titles… Son of a bitch! Are you fucking kidding me, Morbid Angel? What the fuck?!? This album mostly isn’t even Metal at all, but rather the kind of lame-ass Industrial that Gothic Lolitas might dance to if they were sufficiently high and bored. Okay, occasionally the drumming is fast, but I don’t even know if that’s a person (Tim Yeung) or a machine. And there are some moments in “Existo Vulgore,” “Blades for Baal,” and “Nevermore” that at least hint at what this band used to be, but they’re more of a tease than anything substantial. Even during the best (or least-worst) moments of this hour-long exercise in frustration and irritation, Vincent’s barely-growly vocals are vapid and spiritless, and in the most horrible moments, such as the essentially Butt Rock “I Am Morbid” and “Radikult,” laughable. I can only imagine that MA main-man Trey Azagthoth desperately needed money for new video games and/or patchouli-scented guitar picks, but it didn’t occur to him to start giving music lessons to the Tampa Metalcore kids, so he thought, Maybe I could make the shittiest record ever conceived, and it will sell anyway, thanks to the name Morbid Angel alone. If you don’t believe me about how terrible this album is, I don’t blame you: I don’t want to believe it either, and it’s torturing my ears even as I type. So, if you have to hear this for yourself, I understand. But don’t pay for it. Illud Divinum Insanus may go down as the biggest disappointment in Metal history.

Decent Into Obscure Nihilism is a very fitting title for this debut from Turkey’s Womb of Decay, aka: Batu Cetin (longtime vocalist for Goregrinders Cenotaph) who is simply credited with “everything.” What does “everything” entail? All of the instruments and vocals on this extremely morbid Doom slab. What kind of Doom? Good question, imaginary voice in my head, I’m glad you asked. It’s slow, but not quite slow enough to be called Funeral Doom, and it’s certainly not any kind of horrible Hippie/College Doom, nor is it of the English romantic variety. It’s very unique with an odd pace and unusual patterns. I believe this to be a drum machine, but it’s hard to tell. If it isn’t, it could definitely pass for one, and it’s programming would have to be described as quirky, but it works. The riffs are very good, sometimes also oddly delivered, but everything flows well within the songs. Transitions are often sudden, fading in and out, and blanketed by some of the most eerie synths ever recorded. Synths that bring to mind silent movie footage of Dracula rising or thunder and lightning atop a haunted mansion you wouldn’t dare go near. Meanwhile, Batu’s Death snarl fits the horror-inspired feel of the album perfectly. The closest reference I could make is perhaps an even more obscure outfit, the psychotically suicidal Wraith of the Ropes. Similar approaches, similar vibes, but total originality for both acts. If you’re looking for something completely different from all the other Doom out there, this album was made specifically for you. But be warned, this one could have you not wanting to sleep alone and afraid to turn out the lights.

Florida’s Catalepsy have only been putting out records for about four years now, but by the sound of this, their second full-length album, you’d think they were hardened veterans a decade plus into their careers. Bleed has a super-polished, major label-level production that accentuates the extreme heaviness of the band’s very mechanical-sounding Deathcore perfectly. Imagine The Acacia Strain using Fear Factory’s gear and producer! The band reminds me of a more futuristic, Cover Your Tracks-era Bury Your Dead at times, especially on standout cut “Goliath”, where vocalist Rick Norman is a dead ringer for BYD ex-vocalist Mat Bruso, even subtly borrowing from him lyrically for a moment. Speaking of lyrics, the ones on display here are vehemently anti-religion. Something I always treasure, but even more so when the genre is often infiltrated by Christian scum. You won’t find wheel reinvention here, but honestly what kind of douche bag goes around looking for that anyway? You will find high quality brutality played with professional precision, venom spit hard, and crushing breakdowns. Now that sounds like a good night to me.

Absolutely fucking awful Irish Sludge. No talent, no heart, no riffs. Just pure slop on top of pure shit. Noise for worthless, stupid, trendfucking losers. To like this album means you were raised wrong. All of the members of this band liked Metalcore last year. Complete void of musical, lyrical, and vocal talent. Pure fecal matter. I downloaded this album for free and I still want my money back. Highlights include: guitar feedback and hitting the stop button. No listening enjoyment whatsoever. Pure excrement. I made a more sophisticated, more entertaining listening experience with one drumstick and a pillow at age 9. They wanted to play Metalcore, but palm muting an open E-string took too much focus. This will move 46 units, making it the best selling album on Southern Lord in 2011. All of the members of this band play in 27 other bands that sound just like this, and all of their bands will break up in six months, making it the longest lasting commitment they’ve ever endured. I could do this for hours, but you probably get it by now. No talent. Pure shit. Noise. Slop. The only bright spot? I sense this trend will die soon.

I’ll admit, besides hearing the occasional song, I haven’t really gotten into this U.K. band despite their existence for over a decade and a lot of acclaim. Without bias I started listening to Passion, but didn’t finish it during the first spin. They certainly play fast, chaotic Black Metal, but the clean vocals mixed in with the Grindcore styled screams wasn’t cutting it for me. However, like a diligent writer, I wanted to answer the haunting question: “Why is this band so well regarded?” After delving into as much of their discography as I could find, my opinion was formed… The Codex Necro! Anaal Nathrakh’s first album is damn impressive and not a mix of vocal styles. Since then I’ve finished listening to Passion completely a few times and am not impressed with two exceptions: “Tod Huetet Uebel” (vocals totally done in the style of Rainer Landfermann, from Bethlehem’s legendary Dictius Te Necare), and “Ashes Screaming Silence,” which is the heaviest, slowest and most memorable song on the album (minus the clean vocals of course).