Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz...

In an attempt to fuse a series of extreme subgenres from grindcore to black metal passing through touches of death metal and crust punk adding atmospheric elements and many many ambient sounds graphically displayed on the back of the album with the text "Impaled Nazarene play exclusively Industrial Cyber Punk Sado Metal!", Impaled Nazarene gave us one of the worst musical creations ever seen by the modern human being. The album itself is an ode to musical ignorance, to not knowing how to do anything and to not understanding why what you like is good.

If there is something that characterizes this work is for being a failed attempt to sound as blasphemous and chaotic as possible, for it uses in a very strong way an aesthetic and a very concrete atmosphere, which does not work in any way and ends up being boring and ridiculous.The whole thing of the atmosphere with the sounds of the satanic orgies was not even original in 1993, "Sarcofago" had already done it for example, and they did it well while the finnish ones play and give so much hype to these instrumental segments that ends up being tedious, because every time I listen to this album after 7 minutes of listening I want it to stop, there are people who do not seem to understand that sometimes less is more.

And this only talking about the atmosphere, because if we talk about the ridiculousness of the aesthetics that is mainly reflected in the lyrics and song titles we are already on a step further as far as embarrassment is concerned. It confuses me that Mika Luttinen said "If people find my lyrics funny, then, well, something is most certainly wrong in their heads" because I really don't know how they expect me to take everything that surrounds this album, I don't deny that the content is blasphemous but there are different ways to express it and I sincerely believe that what I find here is the most childish and accidentally comical ways that I have seen in a long time. Do they really expect me to listen to and read things like the following and not laugh?

"Killing, the most fucked-up sin".
"The Dog (Art of Vagina)"
"I raped Christ, made him die! I am your god, The chosen fucking...one!"
"I was homosexual partner of Jesus Christ"
"The God (Symmetry of Penis)"

Absolutely laughable, maybe the problem is that I am an ignorant in the art of blasphemy so if this should cause me fascination instead of laughter please someone explain it to me.

And of course, the music is absolutely boring and totally lack of effort or feeling put into it, the only thing we can appreciate at most are the first traces of the strange combinations between grindocre and crust punk elements with melodic alterations that would develop better in the next album, and that would be the only redeemable part of the album, but most of it all sounds the same and if it wasn't for the countless interludes and ridiculous instrumentals the album would last less than 20 minutes and it would seem like just a single horrible song since all the songs sound the same.

The worst part of it all? Is that literally 10 months after releasing this garbage Impaled Nazarene released a true masterpiece, which makes me question my own mental health as every time I try to understand how this could happen I end up getting a headache.

"Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz", oh yes. I remember when I bought the album as a young teenager in 1993 and was completely disturbed after the first listening session. But even then this album already fascinated me and even today I still like to listen to this CD again and again. I associate many memories with it, for example a garden party of the neighbors, which ended abruptly after loud playing. But let's get to the actual point.... After a short intro, spoken in demonic words, all hell breaks loose. "Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz Norz" which means in enochian language "All shall be numbered six six six" is an absolutely malicious, dark, disharmonious and ugly milestone in black metal history. Since there was a lot of bad blood between Impaled Nazarene and various Norwegian black metal bands in the early nineties, this album is also a far reaching middle finger towards the northwestern neighbors of the country.

The music sounds like a mixture of ultra nasty war metal, mottled with some grindcore interludes, which are interrupted again and again by sick interludes, which sometimes seem so exaggerated that one doubts the seriousness of the band. The songs are all written in a furious tempo, the drums sound like a machine-gun salvo, the guitars rattle ultraevil through the songs and Mika Luttinen reeks, roars and screams his soul out as if he was the devil himself. Melodies are sparse, but if they are, they are very catchy and gripping, like in "Condemned to Hell", otherwise the songs are accompanied by a certain chaotic. The sound collages I was talking about are disturbing throughout, either they are animal noises, shrill whistles or something similar, which doesn't really let the listener catch his breath even during these breaks from the actual pieces. Only "The Dog ("Art of Vagina") is a melodic interlude, reminiscent of the side project of the guitarist Jarno Anttila , namely Belial. TCNNNN" was produced in the Tico-Tico Studio, which was and still is known for other good productions (at that time for example Demigod, Belial, Sentenced and Mythos).

It is difficult to name musical references that already existed at that time, because this kind of music was rather new then. I consider Beherit, Blasphemy or even the already mentioned Belial to be the closest comparisons, maybe Archgoat, which were not beyond the status of a demo band at that time. Impaled Nazarene definitely set a clear dividing line with their album between the traditional black metal of the Norwegian or Swedish scene and their own.This album is definitely a must have for all black metal fans who are not only into Dimmu Borgir or Cradle of Filth, but who are also not averse to chaotic and hateful song structures.

I heard this drenched-in-filth band probably seven years ago now on a blind purchase, reasoning that the record label it's on didn't do me wrong with Samael, Mystifier, Immortal, Absu and some others. And I even had a review on this site about five years ago and now I'm deciding to give this another critique. Well, this album still doesn't completely sit well for me and in the least hasn't grown on me in the years piled since—though if it did, I'd have to burn a good chunk of the leech off the skin of my very ears and leave just a dangling reminder of what's remaining.

The music is a splish and splash of this and that. Black, death and grind come and go as if they are all battling each other for who gets the genre crown. This came out at a time when bands were attempting to define the direction of certain musical styles. As many by now know a pocket of evil-minded guys in Norway would be picked as the easiest to relate and imitate: less dudes in a band, you don't have to tour to get a record deal, cheap production values. But then you had others spread out like Blasphemy and Beherit who would take what some Brazilians were doing in the '80s and expand on some of those chaotic features, combining it further with the growing extremes of the '90s. Impaled Nazarene is likely a band that has so many different aspects going on here that I can imagine it would be a feat to imitate this all-over-the-place style, though one would have to tweak some aspects if they are going to place themselves inside the eye of the storm willingly.

There's an abundance of tracks here. The duration of the songs range from some 2-4 minuters, and essentially the time length decreases so on down from there: one minute or less tracks that ejaculate notes and blasts, also intros, or mid-tros, run amuck and add to I.P.'s never-stationary mind-set here, but are for the most part pointless as some of the one-trick pony, quick and direct songs are. The guitars are typically basic to the point of using blazing strums in a humming type of wall with the other instruments. And brought down to a mid-pace or a slow portion they typically still strum it right through as well. On the off hand, some of the guitar lines might actually add a bit of underlying melody, using higher notes in retrospect to their beefy grind, or left-over remnants of hardcore, inspired riffs. The vocals are a lunatic's paradise: never the same, shattering the rules of speaking when it's your turn to speak, breaking boundaries of how far the human voice can be twisted and distorted and basically all over the place. He'll throw out rasps and deep growls, using tongues that no linguist can decipher or transcribe. The extremity bar is pushed even further with the abundance of effects experimented with on top of them. The band Goatpenis's demo is the only one that I think could have given them a run for their money in '92 for being that out there. There are even some keys thrown in for good measure: during intros and in the far background when some of the music is raging forward.

I think when making something whether it be a book, film, artwork, or here music, and you have experimental ideas, it helps when it is refined in a way or explored more thoroughly, and even though they are new and fresh for the time that they came out, are looked at as another flawed package when these ideas aren't worked through because the end result didn't blend together evenly without some things being noticeably overlapped or with its cut and paste lines showing. For instance, 'Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz' has little intros between the metal tracks, like Messiah's 'Hymn to Abramelin' and Acheron's 'Rites of the Black Mass,' and similar to those outputs they are more on the side of annoying than aiding to the recording's evolving span—and I think at first it catches you by surprise, but if you've had this album laying around and put it on periodically like I have, it will make your hand itch for the skip button to get to the meat of it. I've learned to essentially run down some stop signs and fly through traffic lights when the journey looks impeded in the city limits of 'Tol Cormpt.' Some of the intros include raspy voices with delay effects; a deeper voice with delay; babies crying while some constipated guy pushes out a turd or worse; random animal noises including a rooster, and of course more deep voiced guys; a few choir notes on a keyboard; another, though worthy, keyboard intro that sounds like it came from an '80s fantasy/horror movie; a single, yes, one single note played on an old organ for 20 seconds through a grating tweeter speaker; a loose nozzle on your sink spraying water and thunder and lightening in the background. Instead of bringing me closer towards a particular atmosphere, or going along with their purposeful gags, I'm reduced to clenched fists ready to take aim at the CD player spinning these distractions. With the years piled on, their prankster side here turned out to be a tentative backfire.

Some special attention was taken with the mixing and production here since the drums are for the most part even, the vocals pick up the pieces as well when your ears become blinded by the guitars blazing forward, though there are times when they adjust the volume level of his guitars when a certain riff demands attention. This has a more leveled production at that time in extreme metal compared to contemporaries like Nuclear Death and Blasphemy's debut. And it is beneficial for being against the grain at that point (other bands can take notice to not just settle). Though there are only so many worthy moments scattered about for an experience that is littered with intros and going by that reasoning you'd think it was expected to be played all the way through. With the overall experience, I'm under the impression that the band was afraid someone would come up and say, 'Hey you repeated yourself at this point and that point,' so they made themselves different at every turn, or just fell short of putting together something experimental that would work as an entire experience than being split up between scattered good parts, improvable portions and irritating experiences.

Impaled Nazarene are a group you mustn’t take seriously. Each album is a sort of fake tribute to the black metal bands in general and the very first work remains unmatchable in intensity and evilness. Their style is unique and total violence, mixing in a perfect way old school black metal with punk and thrash influences. This is a lethal mixture of extreme genres able to create hellish songs like “I Al Purg Vompo”that with the use of some keys is truly obscure.

The raw up tempo and the semi blast beats sound so primordial and directly influenced by a punk vein. The screams are infernal and between the songs we can find growls, cries and a bunch of other intros like in “Impure Orgies”: the animals sounds at the end are fantastic! And here it’s exactly where Impaled Nazarene want to mock the other extreme groups. So fun!

The drums sound is quite essential but really old school and well recorded in my opinion, with the audible guitars lines. The drummer's way of playing is so raw that during the up tempo, the simple combination of snare-cymbals is the most utilized to create the impact. “The Forest” is the true highlight here in my opinion with fucking great, fast vocals and non sense speed.

Maybe, so many intros like on this CD can break too much the sound's intensity, but it’s OK like this because here everything is created to be extreme, obscene, as sarcastic as possible and voluntary exaggerated. Pure violence in this album…30 minutes of total blasting black/punk played in an awesome, raw way. It’s a pity that, going on, this group would have changed the way of playing but on the other side it is good like this because it remains a great, unique work of art.

I know there's a lot of people who think this album is just noise, but for me it is the best thing these guys have ever released. This is even better than 'Ugra Karma'. Every time I listen to it I feel shocked with the most brutal and aggressive feeling you can imagine. There's not time for peace, this is just war, evil and real madness (loads of madness actually).
Like their countrymates Beherit, Impaled Nazarene wanted to play the darkest and most brutal music they could, yet they added some different influences to their music like those Hardcore riffs that some years later would become their trademark. The result is something very dark and evil, yes, but at the same time quite enjoyable. With songs like 'Condemned To Hell' you can't avoid to bang your head like a maniac.
Unluckily if you are not a maniac you will never understand this. 'Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz' was a gift that some maniacs from the frozen ass of the world gave to the other maniacs of out there. I suppose many of you could never enjoy the moments when the sickest madness is unleashed with unrelentness fury, or when they imitate the sound of a satanic orgy with animals... What a pity they have decided to become more and more commercial, even adding Heavy Metal influences to their music.
As for me, I will always prefer this masterpiece of Industrial Cyber Punk Sado Metal as they used to say.