Search - Anaal Nathrakh :: Codex Necro

Ehhh...

E. Roberts | Canton, MI United States | 12/01/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"i like industrial metal a lot. enough to check out most any band i hear could fit within the label. so i check this band out, and i hear pandemonic hypberblast. it's pretty intense upon repeated listens and i figure an entire album of this would rule. i thought it sounded like teetering on the line between actual music and noise so the end result is an extremely pissed off piece of work, extremely cathartic. i would love it and most everyone else would hate it and that's about how it worked out once i got the cd.the only problem is that the overall noise factor diminishes as you listen to it because they have catchy riffs, synthetic basslines, and other works of melody to show you that, well, that's how they write music. so it's not total noise through and through. there are lots of songs on the album that will stick in your brain, proving itself to be a worthy release in the world of black metal at the moment. i don't think it beats a blaze in the northern sky or most emperor or whatever... but you don't really buy it expecting that. you will probably buy this because you, like me, enjoy harsh horrible music with lots of infernal screaming with an industrial tinge. this band has it. though like i said, it becomes less noisy with repeated listens as you find out the way the songs work. that's kind of a let down for me, but overall it's a good album. if you like this sort of stuff and the quirkiness it may entail, i'd recommend some noise artists like merzbow, or agoraphobic nosebleed's altered states of america, axis of perdition(good black metal with drum machine, a little cleaner than Anaal, but still very raw), red harvest's cold dark matter, and atari teenage riot's burn, berlin, burn. later.."

Hateful sounds

J. Holmes | yokohama, japan | 08/14/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"is there a more scary album than The Codex Necro? totally raw and blasting grim blacker than black metal. this band does not concern themselves with pictures of themselves in corpsepaint or spikes or black leather or pictures of snow capped mountains with viking castles. this is just straight up scary intense hateful metal (with some creepy ambient interludes thrown in just for the sake of dynamics). this album sounds like it's trying to jump out of the stereo speakers and strangle the listener! from the music to the cover art to the lyrics...this sets a new standard for sonic brutality. not for the weak of heart."

Brutal

Christopher Krause | Long Island, New York | 06/07/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Codex Necro is easily one of the best black metal albums ever envisioned. Combining truly brutal grindcore technical aspect with a passionate black metal misanthropy and a progressive image (losing the corpse paint and other oddities of the very scene-centric norwiegan black metal scene), Anaal Nathrakh is one of the most revolutionary bands in the genre. The Codex Necro is the heaviest album you will ever hear. The lyrics are about the filth, vileness, idiocy and absolutism of contemporary culture and the band's hatred of it.



The sound of Anaal Nathrakh is pure nihilistic fury - at times manifesting as a wall of chaos, at other times slowing down with techno-inspired interludes and samples only to explode again into the early Dark Funeral/Darkthrone reminiscent grinding. The vocals are also one of the best I have heard in metal - VITRIOL sounds like a sow getting attacked by a jackhammer through most of the album. His inhuman shrieks and guttural deep spouting provide themselves as a vocal rhythm that permeates throughout the entire album along with samples of pain and chaos.



Overall Codex Necro has no obvious cons. It is a tight, furious and misanthropic attack that when listened to in the dark of the night submerges us in chaotic nihilism.



If you like this album check out Circle of Dead Children and Vesania."