### Anaal Nathrakh: When fire rains down from the sky, mankind will reap as it has sown

#### 18/03/08 || theProphet

Anaal Nathrakh’s 2007 release, the brilliant “Hell Is Empty and All the Devils Are Here” sported, among other things, a seriously long fucking title. However, in terms of album title length (umm…), this was not the band’s greatest achievement, for back in 2003 they released the EP “When Fire Rains Down from the Sky, Mankind Will Reap as it has Sown”. Seriously, that’s 14 words, a fucking double digit number, making it the longest title ever, and giving the title track a spot in the top 5 (topped by two Nile songs, I’ll be damned if I can arse myself to write those titles down here). So now you know that, and by the way, the facts stated above are based on the most rigorous of researches…

Musicwise then?

Well, it’s not as good as “Hell Is Empty…”, the songs on “When Fire…” lack memorable riffs, and the songwriting is generally more generic. Otherwise, it’s more of the Anaal Nathrakh we know and love. It’s fast, we get samples, it’s sterile in a mechanical way, it’s hateful, caustic and of course, the vocals are absolutely insane. Speaking of which, the title track is the earliest AN song to incorporate those clean sung choruses that the band seems to love so much nowadays. Anyways, it’s all there, not just as good as it would be later (or earlier for that matter).

There are two guest appearances as well: Sethlans Teitan, guitarist of Dissection and Aborym fame, as well as playing live with the mighty Watain, lends his talents to the album, but obviously it’s impossible for me to tell where. Additionally, Attila Csihar allegedly performs all vocals on the album’s best track, namely “Atavism”. It’s hard for me to understand why the Thrakh would need vocal guest appearances, though, since V.I.T.R.I.O.L. is already an amazingly versatile singer. Still, Attila Csihar is a great vocalist, and his work here is no less impressive.

To me, Anaal Nathrakh reached their peak with 2001’s “The Codex Necro”, the quality of their recordings then dipped with the 2002 re-release of their two demos “Total Fucking Necro”, the here reviewed 2003 EP “When Fire Rains Down from the Sky, Mankind Will Reap as it has Sown” and the 2004 full-length “Domine Non Es Dignus”. Then they remembered how to be good again with “Eschaton” and “Hell Is Empty and All the Devils Are Here”. I only wrote this to be able to cram their entire fucking discography into a review, thank you.

A lowpoint, but still decent.

6 copy-pasted titles out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2003
- Label: Mordgrimm Records
- Website: www.anaal-nathrakh.tk
- Band
- V.I.T.R.I.O.L.: vocals
- Irrumator: everything else

- Tracklist
- 01. Cataclysmic Nihilism
- 02. How the Angels Fly In (We can Never be Forgiven)
- 03. Never Fucking Again
- 04. Genesis of the Antichrist
- 05. Atavism
- 06. When Fire Rains Down from the Sky, Mankind Will Reap as it has Sown