Review Summary: It sure is an Anaal Nathrakh album
Since 2001, there hasn't been a single two-year period where Anaal Nathrakh hasn't released new material. To many a jaded listener, calling any album since 2009's pivotal
In the Constellation of the Black Widow "new material" might be generous. Even among fans of the band... actually according to the band themselves, every album is just a refinement of the same formula. Programmed blastbeats, wall-of-sound guitars, manic vocals and anthemic choruses. Repeat ten times, slap on a monochromatic cover and come back in two years to do it again. That's Anaal Nathrakh.
Yet despite being such a predictable band, they do what they do so well that it's worth checking in regardless. When
Endarkenment's title track released earlier in the year, it surprised nobody. It ticked just about every Anaal Nathrakh checkbox, aside from the poorly-judged electronic influences of recent albums. Despite that, there seemed to be more focus and energy this time around. The chorus was far more infectious than usual, hearkening back to fan favourites from
Constellation and being tailor-made for a festival circuit that would never be.
The rest of the album continues in a similar vein. Many of the superfluous elements that bogged down their 2010s material are absent, nondescript single-note chugging has been replaced with the black metal-tinged grind that characterized their earlier material. Almost every song has a defining element, like
Create Art, Though the World May Perish's Maidenesque chorus or the cinematic desolation of
Requiem. The vocals also seem to be a step up, with Dave Hunt's most venomous delivery in a long time.
One major change from previous albums has been Anaal Nathrakh's decision to publish their lyrics. Some of the lyrical themes are admirable like
Feeding the Death Machine, a tribute to a Holocaust survivor who evaded death by performing cello in the camp's orchestra. But the absolute lack of restraint and subtlety becomes more apparent than ever with songs like
Libidinous (A Pig with Cocks in Its Eyes) and
Thus, Always, to Tyrants, which references of all things a Frankie Boyle tweet where he proposes that Brazil's far-right president Jair Bolsonaro's name be used as a euphemism for semen.
That said,
Endarkenment is a cathartic experience that is strangely appropriate for the nonsense of 2020. While written before the COVID-19 pandemic, the album's lamentation of public anti-intellectualism and disinformation, along with humanity's capacity for selfishness and cruelty has become more relevant than ever. The album title is goofy as hell (Endarkenment, really?), but it's hard not to share the anxieties Anaal Nathrakh has of a world descending into outright farce. All we can do is enjoy the spectacle.
