''Eight Headed Serpent'' is the thirteenth full-length studio album from Finnish
black metal
Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...
band
Impaled Nazarene
Impaled Nazarene is a Finnish extreme metal band that started as black metal but have incorporated elements of grindcore, thrash metal and death metal, and have grown more towards hardcore punk.
History
The band formed in November 1990, with fo ...
. It was released, as are all of their albums thus far, on Osmose Productions on 28 May 2021. The album is available on CD, LP, cassette and digital download.
Title and lyrical themes
The album's working title was The Octagon Order but was eventually changed to Eight Headed Serpent – originating from Japanese mythology
Yamata no Orochi, despite it not being a theme album.
In the same interview Luttinen also said that lyrics handle themes like
cancel culture
Cancel culture, or rarely also known as call-out culture, is a phrase contemporary to the late 2010s and early 2020s used to refer to a form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles—whether it be online, on ...
,
virtue signalling
Virtue signalling is the expression of a moral viewpoint with the intent of communicating good character.
Definition
"Virtue signalling", according to the ''Cambridge Dictionary'', is "an attempt to show other people that you are a good person, ...
,
flatearthers,
anti-vaxxers and
alternative medicine
Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alt ...
, among others.
Composition and recording
After a few years of gigs following the previous album
Vigorous and Liberating Death
''Vigorous and Liberating Death'' is the twelfth full-length studio album from Finnish black metal band Impaled Nazarene. It was released, as are all of their albums thus far, on Osmose Productions on April 14, 2014. The album is available on CD ...
, the band began considering of recording a new album.
As has been the tradition with prior albums, the band members brought already-composed songs to the studio with oldest of them written a few years prior.
For this album the band selected a recording studio new to them – Revolver Studio – led by Asko Ahonen who had never heard of the band before and had mostly recorded Finnish pop and
schlager music.
The recording spanned from early July to the end of August 2020. The album was mixed in mid-October also by Ahonen, quickly followed by mastering made by Mika Jussila at Finnvox Studio.
Release
Prepending the release of the actual album, an EP named after the opening track ''Goat of Mendes'' was released on 9 April 2021. The EP had also a re-recorded version of
Ugra-Karma
''Ugra-Karma'' is the second studio album by Finnish black metal band Impaled Nazarene. It was originally released on December 1, 1993 via Osmose Productions, and re-released in 1998 with two bonus tracks (taken from the ''Satanic Masowhore'' EP) ...
song ''The Horny and the Horned'' and was released both digitally and on a 7" vinyl.
The actual album was then released on 28 May 2021.
Track listing
*All songs written by Impaled Nazarene.
#"Goat of Mendes" 3:14
#"Eight Headed Serpent" 2:23
#"Shock and Awe" 2:42
#"The Nonconformists" 2:39
#"Octagon Order" 1:49
#"Metastasizing and Changing Threat" 2:23
#"Debauchery and Decay" 3:08
#"Human Cesspool" 0:58
#"Apocalypse Pervertor" 1:46
#"Triumphant Return of the Antichrist" 1:59
#"Unholy Necromancy" 2:30
#"Mutilation of the Nazarene Whore" 1:51
#"Foucault Pendulum" 4:59
#"Penis et Circes (2021)" 2:14
#"The Horny and the Horned (2021)" 3:10
Personnel
*Mika "Sluti666" Luttinen – vocals
*Tomi "UG" Ullgren – lead and rhythm guitars
*Mikael "Arc v 666" Arnkil – bass
*Reima "Repe Misanthrope" Kellokoski – drums
Production
*Arranged and produced by Impaled Nazarene
*Recorded and mixed by Asko Ahonen at Revolver Studio, 2020
*Mastered by Mika Jussila at Finnvox Studios, 2020
Miscellaneous staff
*Artwork by Tuomas "Ritual" Tahvanainen
Charts
References
{{Authority control
Impaled Nazarene albums
Osmose Productions albums
2021 albums