| Product: |
The Infernal Depth Of Hatred - Anata |
| Date: |
16/01/08 (35 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Original and creative technical death metal that avoids all the modern clichés.
Disadvantages: Antagonistic lyrics and aggressive delivery will deter the faint of heart.
Anata's debut album in 1998 was a fresh of breath air in the increasingly stagnant sub-genre of technical death metal, an offshoot of the fast, heavy and angry musical style that innovative bands of the early to mid-nineties experimented with to wildly different results. While Demilich's take on death metal was even more hellish and stomach-turning than the most depraved grindcore bands, others such as Atheist introduced concepts of freestyle jazz into their time signatures and structures to create something that none but the most pretentious John Zorn fan could truly appreciate. Unfortunately this flair for originality became lost somewhere along the way, perhaps in response to the melodic death metal of the Gothenburg movement that stubborn traditionalist death metal snobs felt the need to counteract, causing endless Suffocation clones to release album after album of restless fast and furious guitar riffs that came to dominate the 'technical death' moniker without truly deserving it.
Anata's first album wipes the slate clean, rooting itself in a traditional death metal sound and allowing itself to absorb the very best aspects of the contemporary Swedish scenes, leading to an album that could arguably and confusingly be branded as progressive melodic technical death metal, if I was in the practice of categorising bands. Which I quite clearly am. Progressive for its experimentation with structure and time changes, melodic due to the prominence of dual lead guitars in all the songs, and technical for the musicians' exhausting tendency to throw out dozens of excellent and original riffs and rhythms in every song, without sounding too obtuse. Indeed, this is an album that could be enjoyed by death metal fans of any specialised preference, provided they were accustomed to death metal's traditionally powerful and aggressive style as opposed to the watered down offerings of the lesser bands of the Finnish scene. This is intriguing, gripping and catchy stuff.
1. Released When You are Dead
2. Let the Heavens Hate
3. Under Azure Skies
4. Vast Lands / Infernal Gates
5. Slain upon His Altar
6. Those Who Lick the Wounds of Christ
7. Dethrone the Hypocrites
8. Aim Not at the Kingdom High
As with many death metal bands (but by no means the majority), Anata's lyrics and song titles quite clearly take an anti-Christian stance that's more likely for show than any serious Satanist commitment; of course, being death metal, the lyrics are completely indecipherable in any case. There's very little that appears designed to 'sound' satanic in the way more ideological bands strive for, with only a couple of squealing guitar leads harking back to Slayer's domination of the eighties, which were equally aimed purely at shock value. For the most part, almost its entirety, this album is driven by fast and ruthless guitar riffs from Andreas Allenmark and vocalist Fredrik Schälin over a pounding bashing of the drum kit by Robert Petersson, and thanks to the modern-sounding production, even Henrik Drake's impressive bass guitar work can be clearly heard beneath or between the rhythms. It would be pointless to analyse each distinct change or movement of this album as there are far too many to keep track of in each song, but most thankfully remain grounded in repeating riffs and rhythms to prevent the album from veering off completely into avant-garde showmanship. Anyone listening to this as their first slab of technical death probably wouldn't think twice, except that maybe some of the lead guitars are a little hard to follow.
Generally speaking, the album becomes slightly more complex and intricate towards the end, something that's reflected in the increase of song lengths to around six minutes at this stage, though the excellent third song 'Under Azure Skies' stands out as a comparable epic amidst the relative simplicity (I said relative) of the earlier songs. This song in particular stands out as my favourite, perhaps for its inclusion near the beginning when the album still sounds fresh, but also for demonstrating the full capabilities of each band member. Slightly slower on the whole than some of the other tracks, particularly the first which blares from the speakers at flat-out pace right from the onset, 'Under Azure Skies' seems to be influenced primarily by the late Chuck Schuldiner of unsurprisingly-named death metal pioneers Death, one of the all-time great and most interesting bands in the genre, with thoughtfully executed heavy guitars, constantly rolling drums, plenty of tremolo-picking speedier sections and even a section of bass solo. Reminiscent of Cliff Burton's spotlight in Metallica's instrumental 'Orion,' the bass section acts as a vacuum of tranquillity that is inevitably interrupted all too soon, but permitted to continue behind the excellent lead guitars that are modestly contented to remain in the background. Subtle and uncredited use of keyboards in this song alone adds to the atmosphere, and I became quite sad as the song threatened to end, despite having entertained me for an impressive five and a half minutes.
While this is the pick of the album for me, other songs come close, although the final two songs have a tendency to drag on rather than leave me begging for more; fortunately this album has a sensible length of forty-two minutes that avoids the technical death trap of being too short, but also means that listeners could be a little restless by the end of it all. 'Slain Upon His Altar' is a great medium-length track that seems to draw influence from the more proficient melodic death bands of the time, sounding similar to In Flames' 'The Jester Race' and being most based on lead guitar rhythms. The mellow intro is another nice touch, even if tradition dictates that it will inevitably give way to a cacophony of death metal after about twenty seconds to keep listeners from getting too complacent. Its predecessor 'Vast Lands/Infernal Gates' isn't as complex as its divided title would suggest, but rather continues the melodic death style introduced in the short 'Let the Heavens Hate,' which itself is perhaps the most approachable song on here. By contrast, 'Vast Lands...' takes a leap into the darker and more violent recesses, primarily a drum song that is affected with a noticeable clicking sound that some may pin down to slightly weak production, but that I have always enjoyed, reminding me of the drums on Cradle of Filth's 'Cruelty and the Beast.'
Other songs tend to take things a little too far in the several directions this album pursues, but are by no means weak offerings. The lengthy and provocatively titled 'Those Who Lick the Wounds of Christ' features the most deliberately obtuse lead guitars of the whole album, teasing listeners by refusing to settle on a recognisable pattern and playing out of time with the backing rhythms, which themselves become a little too violent and oppressive by the end. Certainly a song for the more dedicated tech fans, but it leaves me with something of a headache. 'Aim Not at the Kingdom High' suffers slightly for coming at the end of the album without really offering anything new, while conversely the opener 'Released When You are Dead' attempts to both draw in fans of brutal music and deter those who can't quite stomach it, focusing more on aggression and animalistic grunts than the progressive leanings found elsewhere. There's not a bad song on here, and although the untrained/uncontaminated ear may consider it a load of repetitive noise, those more experienced/corrupted will recognise it as a truly creative and intelligently-produced piece of anger and professional instrumentation. I haven't checked out Anata's later releases, but I've read that they lack a certain emotional resonance that this album has in spades; it's perhaps for the best that the lyrics are indecipherable, but boy do those warthog grunts sound compelling.
Summary: Anata's first studio album (1998).
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