Finnish extreme metal legends Impaled Nazarene are true veterans, they are now in their 24th year as a band and with this being their 12th studio album you could forgive them if they had lost some of the ferocity that they have become known for, thankfully this album is testament to the contrary.
They have always been a difficult band to pin down, some call them blackened death metal, some call them death thrash etc, the band simply describe themselves as “In Your Face!”, for me I find it easier to just call them what they are, which is fucking awesome.
With some of their previous albums (in particular 2007’s “Manifest” which is my personal favourite of theirs) they switch between styles with each song but with this album all the evolution happens during the songs themselves, switching between death, thrash, black, grind, punk and good old fashioned rock and roll in the blink of an eye and it all sounds natural.
This starts fast and never lets up, keeping at an adrenaline fuelled high tempo from pretty much
start to finish. The album is also short clocking in at 34 minutes, which stops the relentless pace from growing tiring.
At first I was worried that this approach would take away from the identity of the individual songs, and it does a bit when compared to the previous albums but there is still enough variation between them to keep you interested.
As a single glance at the cover artwork would suggest, This album sounds defiantly old school from start to finish, there are times when these songs hit their stride that it sounds like members of Slayer, Motorhead, Overkill and Marduk got together to have a party in the studio.
My only minor gripe (and it really is minor) is that on this album they have broken the career long tradition of always having one song with goat in the title, I know it might seem like a stupid thing to be bothered about but it just feels wrong it not being there.
They are not breaking any new ground here but they are not trying to, they have obviously set out to make a ferocious, old school record, with no regard for modern trends in the scene, and have certainly succeeded.
Not my favourite Impaled Nazarene album, and does nothing to convert those who didn’t like their previous offerings, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable and long-time fans will not be disappointed.
(8/10 Mark Gleed)
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