Anaal Nathrakh are a British metal band formed in 1999 who fuse industrial and grindcore elements onto an underlying black metal style. They are signed to Season of Mist.
The name comes from Merlin's Charm of Making in John Boorman's Excalibur (1981)....Anaal Nathrakh are a British metal band formed in 1999 who fuse industrial and grindcore elements onto an underlying black metal style. They are signed to Season of Mist.
The name comes from Merlin's Charm of Making in John Boorman's Excalibur (1981). Given Michael Everson's transcription, Anaal Nathrakh means "serpent's breath".
Anaal Nathrakh are typically described as black metal, despite eschewing the aesthetic of many black metal bands, dressing in a casual manner, as opposed to the corpsepaint and spiked leather clothing traditionally favored by the black metal subculture.
The band originally started as a raw black metal band, but with the release of Domine Non Es Dignus, they shifted toward a blackened death metal sound, with emphasis placed on grindcore influences. Through the use of distorted samples, sound effects and programmed drums, much of their work also falls into the industrial metal category, though they use no keyboards in their work.
They do not publish their lyrics, but from the titles and information they have given in interviews, their work seems to revolve around apocalyptic themes, the nature of mortality, and misanthropy.
Anaal Nathrakh, like many black metal bands, draw much inspiration from the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, exemplified by such song titles as "Human, All Too Fucking Human" and "Revaluation of All Values." However, based on what little can be gleaned from interviews and titles, they do seem to differ from most other bands in the style of their interpretations.[citation needed]
The next, album Hell is Empty... And the Devils Are Here will be released through FETO Records in late 2007.
