ALBUM REVIEW: Impaled Nazarene – Eight Headed Serpent

Finnish Black Metal titans IMPALED NAZARENE return with their 13th studio album! Out via Osmose Productions on May 28th.

Chilling synths start the albums icy atmosphere simply before creepy samples add a rather unpleasant vibe to the music, in pure Impaled Nazarene style, glorious. Blistering riffs and savage blastbeats meet maniacal howls that deliver a tempest of monstrous Black Metal right upon us without mercy. The violent instruments conjure darkness with killer riffs and relentless blasting to assist the vocals in their morbid casting of demonic forces, forth from the abyss. Visceral melodies add that somewhat melancholy-tinged Finnish character while the bestial rampage does not feel any less scathing as a result. There is without doubt a feeling of urgency in the disdainful music that fires from strength to strength with no respite. Pure blistering aggression that seethes in Black Metal form, concocted by experienced and passionate musicians who have stood the test of time as veterans of the genre, showcasing why they are such a legendary band.

Betwixt the dominating drums and conquering guitars, the bass is not lost, rather giving a punky groove to the whole thing which Impaled Nazarene have always worn on their sleeves with pride. The vocals are just as barbaric as one would expect from these blaspheming stalwarts too, certainly nothing has faltered over the years. Of course originality is a key element in talking about music in general and while it would be untrue to say Impaled Nazarene have reinvented the wheel here, that is pretty irrelevant considering they got the thing turning in the first place (regarding Finnish Black Metal) having been active since 1990. That said, this isn’t just some rehashed ideas at all, rather a continuation in the maniacal aggression that the band has granted us time and time again, refreshed and daunting but in no way a detraction from their own self-carved pathway.

Elements of Speed Metal and Death Metal have always graced the blackened ferocity of Impaled Nazarene, gladly it does so here. Tracks like “The Nonconformist” are anthemic and armageddon-inducing mayhem that balances triumphantly with more deranged Black Metal pieces such as “Triumphant Return Of The Antichrist”. Overall we see plenty of variety in just over half an hour, spread across 13 bouts of pure sadistic battery. As the album draws to its end, “Unholy Necromancy” and “Mutilate The Nazarene Whore” deliver totally bestial butchery before the doomy closing piece “Foucault Pendulum” draws out with excellence and style. This is down-to-earth, gritty and unpleasant Black Metal from a band whose obnoxious and generally insane antics are renowned. You know what you are getting into, so crank the volume and bang your head. Submit to the bestial rampage of pure sonic debauchery, you will not regret it!

Of course telling Black Metal fans to check out a new IMPALED NAZARENE record may seem redundant, so seekers of blasphemous vitriol from these barbarians, rejoice in the ripping new opus from a supreme band. Pure carnage, as always, with a formidable execution that gets in and out without wasting time, only firing the most deadly ammunition in their arsenal.