Anaal Nathrakhs brand of extreme blackened, grinding death metal is as consistent as it thought-provoking and heavy. That was true of A New Kind Of Horror (2018) and the very same is looking to be accurate for their next album, Endarkenment. With its recently released first single and eponymous cut being the kind of explosive, riff-heavy style the band are highly regarded for. With all of multi-instrumentalist Mick Kenneys noisy guitars and sick blast beats, and vocalist Dave Hunts huge power-metal refrains sitting in their usual places.

Like other Anaal Nathrakh albums, theres many liner notes to accompany the themes and messages of their songs. Endarkenment is no different. With Dave sharing about this forthcoming album and its subsequent titular songs theme of post-truths, personal selfishness and political dogma, that:

There has been, and continues to be, increasingly widespread rejection of Enlightenment-style values such as rationalism, skepticism, the rejection of faith in favour of judgements dependent on empirically verifiable phenomena and so on. There are local versions in many places, but in our native UK, this was summed up by politician/sinister gnome Michael Goves famous claim that weve had enough of experts. Thus we enter the age of endarkenment.

In the tracks fiendish second verse, Dave sums up that flawed thought process as he savagely, ironically, screams: Fuck you if you think I am wrong. The answers I have are all the answers I need. Which is the most astute comment Ive heard from a band in 2020 about the rut of political discourse and academic debate we find ourselves in. Where people make up their mind based on personal preferences first; distort, reject or cherry pick evidence to the contrary second; and refuse new information and perspectives third. (Which is represented by the band portraying such people as blind swine sadly mislead by bad actors in the below music video.)

That objectivity isnt for someones commentary about movies, books, video games or albums. No, its regarding legitimate issues policy, economics, immigration, race, colour, faith, politics that carry tangible effects and real world implications. Thats why an age of endarkenment can be so dangerous. People substituting the opinion of experts and scientists in lieu of their own beliefs (or the talking heads they follow) in a misguided defence of personal liberties, everyone else be damned. Something weve seen no shortage of from those who stutter and stammer as they rehash their rehearsed mental script about freedoms whenever a shopping-centre staff member kindly asks them to wear a mask or leave.

The Birminghamduos 11th album, Endarkenment, is out October 2nd, 2020.

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Anaal Nathrakh enter into an age of 'Endarkenment' with hectic new song - Kill Your Stereo