Rating: 9.4

Country: Sweden

Release Date: 1998

Record Label: Season of Mist

Track list:
1. Released When You Are Dead
2. Let The Heavens Hate
3. Under Azure Skies
4. Vast Lands / Infernal Gates
5. Slain Upon His Altar
6. Those Who Lick The Wounds Of Christ
7. Dethrone The Hypocrites
8. Aim Not At The Kingdom High

Band Website: Anata

Anata - The Infernal Depths of Hatred

Schalin - Lead Guitar/Vocals
Robert Petersson - Drums
Andreas Allenmark - Guitar
Henrik Drake - Bass

When Anata first burst onto the Swedish death metal scene in 1998, death metal was just starting to find its bearings again after an identity crisis that lasted through the mid-90s. Unfortunately, the new identity of the genre didn't sit well with many. Too much emphasis on hamfisted 'brutality', ostentatious displays of technical noodling and mosh grooves at the expense of memorable riffs and intelligent songwriting soured old-school fans on the new wave of extremity.

Anata, however, could not have been more different from the majority of their brethren in this movement. The Varberg quartet emphasized in their compositions what the old guard of extreme metal had emphasized - those same elements that the new school seemed to largely ignore. They realized that technical proficiency was something metal fans had come to expect from every band, and that brutality had to be a natural byproduct of good songwriting and could not be manufactured. As such, The Infernal Depths of Hatred comes across as an album much more in line with the likes of Clandestine, Unquestionable Presence, Altars of Madness and North From Here than any of its contemporaries.

The approach to songwriting on this album is actually quite unique. Every song bears a distinctive arrangement that differs from the one before it - sometimes radically so. "Released When You're Dead" might be the most typical technical death metal song on the record, possessing all the hallmarks of the genre's European playbook - uptempo jackhammer riffs with multiple time signature shifts and lightning-quick leads, as well as a bludgeoning breakdown section with enough of a melodic flourish to avoid being strictly a mosh riff. This opening track would not sound out of place on one of the first two Iniquity albums. But on the very next track the band endeavors to do something completely different - "Let The Heavens Hate" is a blisteringly fast track, relatively straightforward in its rhythmic arrangement, based around a single ascending melody that's transfigured into a variety of permutations.

Then a couple of tracks later, you've got "Slain Upon His Altar", with its gentle classical guitar intro which then explodes into a barrage of trem-picked harmonies and chords that seem inspired by Dissection's The Somberlain, though with a far more menacing tenor. Skip ahead to "Dethrone the Hypocrites", a chameleon of a song that starts out with a flurry of blackened metal melody, then shifts into an almost bluesy swagger before suddenly unleashing a barrage of some of the most jagged and unorthodox tech-metal riffing you'll ever hear, all in the span of a measly 6 minutes. And the amazing thing is that there's nothing at all contrived or awkward about the way this album is arranged. Anata understands that variety is the key to creating an album that stands out and grabs the listener, and they manage to establish the presence of variety and unpredictability early on in this album, and assert it throughout without genre-hopping like Edge of Sanity or resorting to cheap gimmickry like Dodheimsgard or Augury.

The actual performance of the band is also worth mentioning here. Often times when you hear the term 'technical death metal' you immediately think of sterility and clinical precision, without any sense of exuberance. That's not the case here. Anata is a band that sounds like it's actually having fun playing their music. They play fast and loose [but never sloppy] and exhibit an energy that you just don't hear from many of their peers.

This is an album you pretty much need to own if you like death metal. It's unique, innovative and unpredictable, but also utterly unpretentious.

June 27th, 2007