While the land of their Scandinavian contemporaries slowly creepstowards weeks of complete and unrelenting natural darkness, Britain'sAnaal Nathrakh seem set to unleash a similar fate upon the world withthe release of their second full length. Picking up right where theyleft off 3 years ago with their wildly successful and criticallyacclaimed debut, The Codex Necro, the duo bring more of what they havetermed to be "the soundtrack for armageddon, the [audile] essence ofevil, hatred and violence, the true spirit of necro taken to itsmusical extremes." While obviously this is typical black metalhyperbole, they've historically done a pretty solid job of backing itup with their cold, mechanistic precision and merciless velocity.However, Domine Non Es Dignus, as shocking as it may be, sees themprogressing beyond classic "grim" schlock and entering a territorywhere they can truly do some damage. An immediately noticeabledeparture from their previous work is the inclusion of cleanly sung,mildly operatic vocals that bring immediate and unavoidable comparisonsto Garm's late Ulver/early Borknagar work. While this aspect of theirsound is still in its formative stages and is used sparingly, it showspromise. Nowhere is this more evident than the album's standout track,"Do Not Speak," on which vocalist V.I.T.R.I.O.L. ascends, albeit foronly a short time, above the catchy breakneck guitar harmonies for asurprising and, hopefully, revealing glimpse at what is to come.Compare that to "Procreation of the Wretched" in all of its howling,noisy, and all-around old-school glory, and you'll get a pretty goodidea of the astounding range these guys are capable of covering in thecourse of ten short songs. They even take a stab at death metaldynamics with the relatively slow groove of "This is the End," anotherforward thinking gem on an album not lacking novel ideas and more thanadequate execution. Read More
