Anaal Nathrakh’s ‘Passion’ sounds like the final evolutionary step of heavy metal music. It combines unspeakably extreme, wall-of-sound mixing, absurdly fast and intricate drums, searing riffs with the most violent vocals imaginable. Frequently, the shrieking departs from the standard death-metal howls and enters a dark new territory of disturbingly convincing pained-yelps, and hoarse, tearful cries. AN has long been one of the honored and reviled chaplains of extreme metal, and with this release, they have offered up the audio equivalent to a mass-extinction event. It’s the noise of pigs being slaughtered, the treads of tanks shredding through bones and flesh. If music is ever going to be fully weaponized, these British bastards are at the top of the list.
