-Anaal Nathrakh-

Anaal Nathrakh was created for one purpose - to be the soundtrack for armageddon, the audial essence of evil, hatred and violence, the true spirit of necro taken to its musical extremes. It has never been subject to hype, never been a vehicle for personal promotion, and never claimed anything it couldn't deliver musically.

There were two demos, the first early 1999, the second in September of the same year. The demos were well received, and eventually Leviaphonic Records offered to package them both on one CD called 'Total Fucking Necro', resulting in sales of CDs to people all over the world, from Europe and America to South America, Asia and beyond. Underground radio airplay and some rave reviews followed, with people grasping the raw, violent feel that drove the music. Media opinions included praise such as 'When I played this CD I was just amazed! What's a mood! I have not felt such a thrill for a long time...' (Agonia), 'reminds me of a marriage of the best elements from Mayhem, Burzum and Darkthrone. Anaal Nathrakh is surely one of the best black metal bands to surface from England in recent years.' (Eternal Frost), '...very effective and highly devastating.' (Chronicles of Chaos).

The band have also been successful throughout the internet, reaching the top 5 in the www.mp3.com Black Metal chart with a total of over 30,000 song downloads, and being asked to appear in mp3 form on www.hellfrost.com. With praise coming from no less than Mayhem themselves for their terryfying rendition of 'De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas', Anaal Nathrakh is surely a band to be taken seriosly. A promo track recorded as a taster for their debut album was instantly accepted to appear on a compilation CD from well respected web-based zine Eternal Frost...

Finally the necrotic atom bomb dropped... Anaal Nathrakh set loose their debut album 'The Codex Necro' on cult UK underground label Mordgrimm. The list of accolades grew - Album Of The Month in Terrorizer magazine, along with a track on the cover mounted CD, 4/5 in Kerrang magazine along with a request for the band to appear in a full page article, voted best newcomer of 2001 by the readers of Terrorizer, plus #8 in the Albums Of The Year writers' poll. With new material that surpassed even the utter necro fury of 'The Codex Necro' soon to follow, The age of true NECRO had arrived!

The new asshole torn by The Codex Necro was next brutally fucked with the release of 'When Fire Rains Down From The Sky, Mankind Will Reap As It Has Sown', a mini album of apocalyptic nihilism featuring guest appearances from Seth and Attila from Aborym and the legendary Mayhem, among others. Again, this CD was named Terrorizer CD of the month along with accolades in many other publications. Released at virtually the same time on another cult UK label, Rage of Achilles, was 'Total Fucking Necro', a CD of the band's 2 demos packaged as one, put out at the request of various necrotic freaks who had contacted the band asking for such a release to be permitted. The latter was even picked up on by legendary BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, with Anaal Nathrakh eventually being asked to take part in a session at the BBC's studios in London, which was broadcast across the UK and through the internet on the 16th of December, 2003. This national form of radio oral rape coincided with the drawing together of contract negotiations which had been ongoing for much of 2003. Early in 2004 a deal was signed between Anaal Nathrakh and the label Season of Mist, home to Mayhem, Carpathian Forest, Macabre, Gorguts etc etc. Given what is likely to be produced, this is not cause for celebration.