Impaled Nazarene has been consistent with their metal for the last several years, now carrying into the new millenium with Nihil, their sixth full length album. Nihil follows the same relative pattern of 1998’s Rapture, chock full of some more good melodic riffs, simple and precise drumming, short songs and a chaotic Motorhead feel sometimes. However, save for the awesome, super tight guitar sound, Nihil lacks the same potency and in my opinion stands as their least unique effort to date, mostly in the vocal department if you’d care to believe that. Mika’s hateful as ever lyrics continue to give Impaled Nazarene that added kick, however his voice comes across more harshly spoken instead of the rancid, violent screaming from the past… not that this is all too criticizable as I’m surprised he still has a throat left to begin with. I know this is going to sound stupid, but the clearer production somehow detracts from their trademark vehement chaos which in turn fails to consolidate much excitement into the highly basic song structures. Essentially Nihil is like a preliminary Impaled Nazarene song base without the lurking unpredictability that so greatly empowers the rest of their catalog, and although still a decent album, I just don’t foresee it taking precedence. Tracks 7-10 pick up with more conviction and catchiness, so it’s worth getting to add those songs to an existing Impaled Nazarene collection. Otherwise, check out Rapture for the straightforward hate style or any other release for the more off the wall goat perversion-nuclear holocaust-rabid dementia this band proudly offers.

"Wrath Of The Goat"

"In these darkened times
Nothing fucking matters
Why fucking should it
Shouldn’t you fuck off

In these fuck off times
All is said and done
Emotions dead and gone
Alone yet not lonely

In this shithole planet
Nothing comes for free
I am so fucking fed-up
Trying to cope with me

In my full of shit life
Shit keeps raining down
Shit keeps hanging around
Taste of shit in my mouth

This is the wrath of the goat
Leave a message and do fuck off"

Written By: Abbas