Impaled Nazarene—Manifest (2007)

Details

Manifest was recorded and mixed at Sonic Pump Studio by Tapio Pennanen between May and July 2007. Mastered at Finnvox Studio by Mika Jussila on August 2007. Produced by Impaled Nazarene and Tapio Pennanen. All songs written by Impaled Nazarene except ‘Intro: Greater wrath’ by Trollhorn and Repe Misanthrope. Released on Osmose Productions in 2007.

Band

Mikaakim—Vomit (sic)
Anttila—Guitar
UG—Lead guitar
Arc Basstard—Bass
Repe Misanthrope—Drums

Tuomio played all lead guitars on Manifest.

Tracks

Intro: Greater wrath (Repe Misanthrope, Trollhorn)
The Antichrist files
Mushroom truth
You don’t rock hard
Pathogen
Pandemia
The calling
Funeral For despicable pigs
Planet Nazarene
Blueprint for your culture’s apocalypse
Goat justice
Die insane
Original pig rig
Suicide song
When violence commands the day
Dead return

Review

When I first listened to this album, much earlier in the year I hated it. But on a closer examination I feel that this is a strange album of two halves. Other than the atmospheric opening, I really didn’t connect with the first half of this album (tracks 2-7), after that it became the kind of album I could listen to as background noise while needing to code: a fine combination of white noise and interesting-enough riffs, and decent (gruff, shouty) vocals.

Of course, I should also say something about the name: Impaled Nazarene. Clearly a reference to Jesus of Nazareth. Apparently the reference is related to a pamphlet that the vocalist read which claimed that Jesus had been a vampire, and as we all know one way to kill a vampire is to impale it with a stake. That does seem a little convoluted given that Jesus was crucified and so would have been impaled through the wrists and ankles with dirty great nails. As a Christian, the name strikes me as yet another black metal band trying to manufacture controversy.

The lyrics are at best on par with Slayer’s debut ‘Show No Mercy’, and at worst… well,

Original pig rig. Attack and destroy Christian scum.
Original pig rig. Age of Satan the glorious dawn.
Original pig rig. Fall of man good riddance.
Original pig rig. Death to false saviour.

It’s not exactly… very upbeat and positive. Or good.

Anyway, some of the music is alright. Nice guitar tone. The vocals are not annoying, and some wild drumming.

The intro: not so much a running start as a bit-of-an-amble, this album. “The Greater Wrath”, it would appear, sounds like someone digging a grave during a war with horses passing by, and with the door of a nearby pub open.

All in all I found this to be a rather run-of-the-mill, death metal by numbers album. There’s nothing terribly outstanding about the opening tracks. “The Antichrist files” has quite a forgettable riff but it’s over in 1′ 23″. “Mushroom truth” is very repetitive for about three minutes before the horns kick in. Less repetitive more horns please.

I might be wrong but it sounds like “You don’t rock hard” is trying to be melodic. It feels like NWOBHM meets black metal. I really like “Funeral for despicable pigs”. Nice riff. Deep, gruff vocals. I reminded me of the late Chuck Schuldiner (Death). “Blueprint for your culture’s apocalypse” also has a Death feel to it, which is probably why I liked it.

The final track “Dead return” is a bit slower, a little more melodic.

Conclusion

Even taking into account that the second half is better than the first, I still didn’t really enjoy listening to this album. I did prefer using it as background noise, though. That I found more relaxing to be honest. I’m going to give this a rather generous 6/10, I think.

Review score: 60%