'The Codex Necro' is the first full length album by UK black metal outfit Anaal Nathrakh, namely Mick Kenney aka 'Irruminator', responsible for all instruments, programming, production and artwork, and Dave Hunt aka 'Vitrol', responsible for violent tortured screams. To talk about this album I first need to mention 1997 film 'Event Horizon', starring Sam Neill and Lawrence Fishburne, which reconciles modern sci-fi with the Hieronymous Bosche-styled Hell of old. A salvage crew are sent to investigate an experimental craft called the 'Event Horizon' which was designed to create a black hole to bend space and time but ended up disappearing along with its crew ...  Read the complete review

Birmingham black metal duo Anaal Nathrakh have their passionate admirers and detractors, and both groups are wrong. This inhumanly fast and aggressive music isn't the future of black metal, particularly as there are earlier, more devastating releases out there, but at the same time it isn't just two blokes going mindlessly crazy over a relentless drum machine. Alright, it is mainly that, but Irrumator's guitars and V.I.T.R.I.O.L's vocals can both boast of incredible force and intensity paralleled by few in the extreme metal world. Brummies have always had a natural talent for this metal stuff. So extreme is this music, that it often requires metal fans to ...  Read the complete review