After 2007's Hell is Empty, And All the Devils Are Here where the band had some experimentation with different styles, In the Constellation of the Black Widow is a return to form for Anaal Nathrakh. And apparently the last two years has really, really pissed them off. Anaal Nathrakh has always been on of the most extreme bands out there but this album seems to take it to the next level. It's not simply anger and hate contained within. Every dark and negative emotion is on display at some point during this 35 minute preview of Armageddon. Guitar riffs drip with sorrow and misanthropy. The vocals are varied and rife with anguish and despair. But make no mistake, the overall tone of this album is one that Anaal Nathrakh presents better then anyone else - Hate. Not a band that everyone can enjoy and this album does nothing to change that. However, fans of Anaal Nathrakh and extreme metal in general will not be disappointed!
This is actually the first i have heard of this band & this stuff is just brutal! Most Death Metal bands tend to put out monotonous stuff which is usually good stuff, but after awhile it gets tiring.. this band does not! At least with this album anways. Fans of Black Dahlia Murder will love this album! Or if you love screaming, growling, brutal death metal you'll love this! If you feel like screaming, dying or just plain wanna kill someone listen to this album! Trust me it brings all that to a stop! =) A.m.a.z.i.n.g.!!
Just got into Anaal Nathrakh just recently and this album definitely did not disappoint. As a drummer i really appreciate the versatility of the drummer and all the riffs. The vocals are awesome and jump from screeches to growls and clean vocals as well. Looking forward to their next release.
The kind of music that Anaal Nathrakh play is an extremely inventive, original, and overwhelmingly fast and brutal -- if, albeit, kind of diffuse -- amalgam of black metal and grindcore, with some death metal, industrial metal, thrash and hardcore tinges added into the mix for good measure. The British duo spend most of their time on 2009's "In The Constellation Of The Black Widow" dipping in and out of stop-start grindcore blasts, whiplash tempo changes, bludgeoning guitars, and traditional black metal rasps. And only occasionally do they include any sort of relief (i.e. a melodic breakdown, groove-oriented section, etc). Needless to say, The Berzerker and early Strapping Young Lad are the first two bands that come to mind when listening to this album. But further sources of inspiration include Origin, Mayhem, Angel Corpse, Nasum, Morbid Angel, Deicide, Pig Destroyer, Napalm Death, Behemoth, Rotting Christ, and Dying Fetus.
The record begins on a terrifically ominous note, with the title track fusing in walls of swirling hiss, doomy, lurching power chords, Dimmu Borgir-like atmospherics, and really nasty and evil-sounding vocals (including some near pig squeals). The number soon gains plenty of speed and momentum, though, and ends up rocketing you into an outrageously dissonant onslaught of ferocious guitar shredding and grinding, hyper-kinetic blast beats. Meanwhile, frontman V.I.T.R.I.O.L.'s, uh, vitriolic vocals alternate between skin-crawlingly dissonant black metal rasps and creepy spoken-word growls. And, of course, I have to mention this: A wildly shredding -- yet kind of ripping -- guitar solo (from guest axeman Barm "Ventnor" Frog) caps it all off. Track two, "I Am The Wrath Of Gods And The Desolation Of The Earth," explodes back onto the scene with blistering, and truly impeccable and machine-gun-fast blasting and furious thrash picking. The end result evokes Impaled Nazarene and Dark Funeral -- or it would, at least, if not for the subtlest of melodic/symphonic choruses, and use of Devin Townsend-meets-Dani Filth-esque vocals. And from that point on to the full-on thrash of "More Of Fire Than Blood" (which includes two mini but decent solos), to the frantic, disorienting blastfest that is "Satanarchrist," the brutality darn near never relents.
Other highlights on this beast include the distorted, grumbling bass intro, industrial music-derived drum beat, big, crunching guitars, and paint-peeling blackened tinged grindcore-worthy vocals of "The Unbearable Filth Of The Soul"; the Iron Maiden-ish guitar licks and brutal black metal shrieks of "So Be It"; "The Lucifer Effect," which, aside from featuring some cool deathly vocals, is an otherwise outright cybergrinder of a song; and the Bolt Thrower-inspired chug and double bass stomp of "Oil Upon The Sores Of Lepers."
As mentioned in the first paragraph, "In The Constellation" kind of sounds all over the place, and its series of convoluted riffs and tempo changes never lock into any real groove to speak of. Plus, the drumming on this album is, at times, annoyingly mechanical-sounding (the metronome-gone-wild blasting sometimes comes too close to sounding like a drum machine for comfort.) As such, this falls short of being a true landmark release. But it most certainly is a monster of an album, and definitely one that extreme metallists ought of consider adding to their collection.
This album is cool - especially the title track, but I think Misters VITRIOL and Kenney may have lost a bit of edge. Start with "The Codex Necro" and "When Fire Rains Down From The Sky..."
