Band:	Anaal Nathrakh
Album:	Hell Is Empty, And All The Devils Are Here
Style:	Black metal, Grindcore
Release date:	October 2007

01. Solifugae (Intro)
02. Der Hölle Rache Kocht In Meinem Herzen
03. Screaming Of The Unborn [feat. Shane Embury]
04. Virus Bomb
05. The Final Absolution
06. Shatter The Empyrean [feat. Shane Embury]
07. Lama Sabachthani
08. Until The World Stops Turning
09. Genetic Noose [feat. Joe Horvath]
10. Sanction Extremis (Kill Them All)
11. Castigation And Betrayal

Impressive but conformist

Besides having a name that makes me think of suppositories, Anaal Nathrakh is notable for being one of the relatively few British black metal bands to generally receive respect from the hermetic scene they cater to. After listening to Hell Is Empty And All The Devils Are Here it is easy to see why this is. High on both black metal 'necrosity' and grindcore insanity, the Brits commit to tape music that is as interesting in terms of arrangement and songwriting as it is brutal.

Mind you, the band doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel here. Grind-black metal has been done before, say by Impaled Nazarene and Rotting Christ (and doesn't most black metal have blasts anyway?); however, Nathrakh's take on this particular hybrid succeeds because their mix happens to be written well and contains ratios of elements that augment the flow. It might sound strange to cite dynamic, memorable songwriting as the main selling point of the music of a band that obviously tries their hardest to be as nasty, fast and brutal as possible, and yet this is exactly what is happening here. The first proper track on the album, "DerHölle Rache Kocht In Meinem Herzen ", prepares us for what we'll hear throughout. Crusty down-tuned riffs mix with blast-beat mayhem and a schizophrenic vocal approach, consisting of grunts, raspy shrieks and the occasional Ihsahn-esque operatic chorus. Shane Embury guests on bass here, so it is not all surprising that this album sounds closer to grindcore a lot of the time. Then again, a song like "Screaming Of The Unborn" is a clear nod towards the band's raw black metal past. The drums here are all supposedly performed by a drum machine and I need to say that if this is indeed true, this machine sounds damn human to me. I don't know what type of drum machine this is, or what normalizing effects were applied to it during mastering but the effect is quite impressive.

I suppose the only thing missing from Hell Is Empty And All The Devils Are Here is a sense of innovation. The band is very tight, they write memorable songs and sound very menacing throughout. Still, it all somehow sounds fairly pedestrian to me, never screaming "hey! look at what I'm doing here" and instead going for "listen to how well I'm playing this". Indeed, the above criticism isn't a huge deal since this album is still a very fun listen; however, it makes it merely a very good piece of music, and not groundbreaking, excellent and redefining.