Anaal Nathrakh - Endarkenment (2020)

Unleashing what is their most mature and yet completely devastating release to date, Anaal Nathrakh returns with the relentless “Endarkenment”. Featuring a more focused and equally crushing sound, this album delivers over 41 minutes of balls to the wall aggression mixed with interesting vocal arrangements and the band’s signature chaotic style. If you liked the band’s previous releases, you will love the brutality and craftiness behind this one.

Opening with the album title track, we are instantly flooded with the band’s superior aural abuse thanks to waves of guitars, blistering drums, and completely chaotic (and yet quite soothing) multiple vocal styles. There is an underlying level of melody that we haven’t seen before, allowing the band to create more ‘breathing’ passages between brutal onslaughts. As the duo continues to pummel through this release, songs like “Thus, Always, to Tyrants” and “The Age of Starlight Ends”, keep the intensity to the max, while unleashing some interesting vocal theatrics on this last song.

The band’s ability to craft playful tracks with sinister moods is quite evident from pieces like “Beyond Words” and the superbly dynamic “Feeding the Death Machine”. While the band’s core sound is as brutal and chaotic as ever, we get some glimpses at more melodic elements, particularly the soaring vocal melodies of the later song, and the pummeling “Create Art, Through the World My Parish”. Our favorite track has to be the completely bipolar “Singularity” and its very melodramatic passages.

Closing with the sheer brutality of “Requiem” and its sinister melodic riffs, “Endarkenment” is one hell of an album that shows a different and more mature sound to the band. While their massive sound and extreme intensity are front and center in this release, Anaal Nathrakh seems to be able to channel their inner spirit in more creative and crafty ways throughout this release. Such a masterful release is certainly to make it on our top 10 albums of 2020, so be sure to check it out when it drops.

Label: Metal Blade Records

Release: October 2nd, 2020

Genre: Extreme Metal

Country: UK