Anaal Nathrakh’s 2001 debut album, The Codex Necro took the Black Metal world by surprise; in that album they portrayed some of the fastest, most brutal Black Metal ever recorded. This year Irrumator (all instruments) and V.I.T.R.I.O.L. (vocals) have finally decided to release a new full-length and I couldn’t be more pleased with their decision.

In Domine Non Es Dignus, Anaal Nathrakh once again do what they do best; and what is that? Well being brutal as fuck of course; but what distinguishes this guys from the rest is that they do it with style.

You’ll find everything you would expect from a brutal Black Metal band: light speed riffing, even faster (computer programmed) drums and extremely grim vocals; so what’s new there? nothing; that’s why Anaal Nathrakh throws other great stuff into the mix to keep it interesting (at least for a while).

Let’s take To Err is Human, To Dream – Futile, as an example: the song begins with an ultra fast riff, accompanied by matching double bass drumming and the sound of men marching; the song continues flowing in the classical light-speed tremolo riffing way, with blast beats, when all of a sudden a slower (in Anaal Nathrakh’s terms that is) Thrash like riff is thrown in; not only this sounds extremely cool, it also gives the song more punch, and helps you appreciate the speed even more. Like this, there are many other cool resources implemented by the band; like the great electronics and keyboards; sometimes epic, sometimes industrial, but in both cases quite good; or the clean vocals which include high, power-metal like screams, which sound awesome and which remind me a bit of the style used by Ihsahn of Emperor in the Prometheus album.

I’ve always felt that dynamics are important in music and these guys manage to be dynamic in an extremely brutal style, thing that is quite difficult; so if you want fast, brutal heavy and violent Black Metal, this is one you should consider. If you have heard Anaal Nathrakh’s previous releases you already know how this album sounds like; the only difference could be that The Codex Necro is more brutal, but apart from that I guess this is typical Anaal Nathrakh; not that it bothers me, just don’t expect great evolution by the band. Not an album that will stay in your play list forever but I guess it's OK to listen to it every now and then.

To close this review I would like to quote the intro to Do Not Speak: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot, stamping on a human face forever”. Well; that boot has a name: Anaal Nathrakh.