Album Review: Anaal Nathrakh - Desideratum

In the continuing quest to harness the most extreme, punishing sound, the rest of the metal world is still catching up with Anaal Nathrakh, a band who capture violence on record like no other and for whom the concept of “compromise” doesn’t exist. Another black metal assault augmented with an industrial exo-skeleton, there aren’t many surprises on Desideratum other than the surreally euphoric edge to the vocals on Idol and Joystream. It’s just enough to suggest that despite the epic pulverisation, Anaal Nathrakh are having almost criminal levels of fun.