Bestial Black Metal Filth

This was the first Anal Blasphemy release I heard, a little after it was released. And the reason I was interested in it in the first place was the album cover; it's so cliche, yet so original in a way I can't describe.

But now to the music: the church organ intro, "Jeesuksenhäpäisyinitiaatio", manages to build up the feeling for the album on every listen. The words are so blasphemous that it's toying on the edge of comical, but manages to stay on the 'kick-god-in-the-nuts' side; a thing which quite many black metal bands seem to have problems with.

The second track is where the album really starts, and it starts furiously with a kind of thrashy riff and a mid-pitched scream. Already at that point, I could tell I love the album. When the song goes on, it keeps having these riffs, which don't quite seem to fit into black metal, but fit the rest perfectly. Props to Molestor for succeeding in this. When the third track kicks in, I honestly am surprised every time; the intro of it is so easily forgotten but good, that it seriously is great. The whole song is good, but quite long, and the lyrics are as blasphemous as you'd expect. Vocals don't have much variety, but at times when he does higher screams, they even manage to send shivers down my spine. About halfway through, the song slows down, which sounds almost like it'd turn into a doom metal track, but it doesn't last long, when it gets fast again, but then abruptly turns into what the earlier feeling was for the rest of the song.

Already at this point of the album, it was clear it's a really great one; but in the end, hadn't even begun to be the awesomeness it truly is. Because when the next track started, everything was pointing to it being truly one of the best.

Track 4, "Blasphemous Arts of Satan", my personal favorite, has more varied vocals than earlier tracks, including high-pitched yells, the typical screams, and some semi-low growls. It's one of the three black metal anthems which made 2009 a great and hard to beat black metal year; the other two being Archgoat's "Goat and the Moon" and MAXD's "Let There be Darkness", which all are mid/slow-tempo and crushing. Anyway, back to the anal, the song's highpoint for me is 1:13, when the slower, 'swingy' riff spits right in my face; accompanied with the vocals, it is like a hammer that crushes the heads of hundred christians at the same time. The only weak thing in the whole track is the ending. It just doesn't feel like it should've ended there because there is no epic moment of blasting, but it's the only thing that I can complain about, apart from the talking in the beginning of "Satan Rapes God" and "Demonwolves", which are probably the most perverted tracks of the album, the first one being that for the deep and philosphical lyrics (needless to say, that was sarcasm) and the latter for the catchy riffs and drums, which sound something that porngrind bands do a lot.

Between those two tracks there is "Goddess of Smut", which is slow and heavy. It reminds me of Black Sabbath's songs "Black Sabbath" and "Iron Man" until the vocals fully come in. This song would be perfect for the soundtrack of choking someone after taking an overdose of drugs, while you're slowly dying yourself.
"Masturbation on Jehovah's Altar" is a song that takes everything the album has had so far and twists them together into a furious beast killing everything on its way. The next track is just a generic song with no surprises.

"Under the Leather Wings" is what I'd say is quite similar to "Blasphemous Arts of Satan" but somehow easier forgotten. Then what we hear is an outro, which is something that you wouldn't want to hear in the middle of the night when you're just falling asleep.

Overall, the album is a great one, easily one of the best black metal releases of 2009. Just to repeat myself, it's this and a few other albums which crowned 2009, so you definitely should listen it, and once you do, you notice you're addicted to it.

This Finnish ensemble are helping to prove that Finnish bands own the sickest part of the metal scene. Anal Blasphemy have released a bunch of demo tapes, and this is their first album release proper and my first exposure to them. The sleeve and titles will leave you with the impression that this is just some perverted black metal release ala Lust, but it's actually more spiritually in line with war metal. What it sounds like to my ears is a perfect mesh of Blasphemy (speed, total noise attack) Bathory (ala THE RETURN with it's black wall of noise) and Xasthur's depressive black metal. The overall effect is so impressive that it doesn't even bother me that it even sounds like the instruments are out of tune from time to time. For some reason it just makes the chaotically dark sound here a shade more demented.

The tempos are mixed, some blasting, some up-tempo, some downright doom-laden as with the crushing "Goddess Of Smut." The sound is a huge, echoing wall of toxic black death, the vocals a sick but almost intelligible belch, and everything is performed by the band's sole member, Molestor Kadotus. This one man approach is another thing that brings both Bathory and Xasthur to mind, but the density of sound and depth of the band's bassy attack make this as much death as black metal. It's just excellent all the way around, and whether it's war, black or death metal, if it even matters, it just kills. Sick! One of the best new albums I've heard so far this year.