Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Impaled Nazarene Manifest Company: Osmose Productions Release: 2007 Reviewer: Al Kikuras Genre: Black

IN are stabbing as deeply and violently as they ever have

A god damning good time, this is. Impaled Nazarene, almost 20 years into their career, play with all the enthusiasm and conviction of a band taking their first stab at all things metallic, and IN are stabbing as deeply and violently as they ever have. Manifest is a quality slab of thrashy, punk-influenced black metal that doesn't get watered down by being somewhat eclectic in sound and delivery. Rage, pure and simple, is the glue that holds this record together. The production is prime, with the rumble and clatter of the bass always audible under the wall of guitars. The drums are very well-recorded. Vocals are spat forth with such vitriol and venom that delivery that it doesn't matter that Mika may not have the most distinctive of voices...a 12-gauge shotgun will take your fucking head off no matter what color the stock. And when he digs down deep for the gutter during the chrous of "Funeral For Despicable Pigs" (perhaps the best song on the album), you will find it hard to believe a man with such a relatively diminutive frame is capable of such depths.

Manifest delivers in every way. The songs are catchy, varied in tempo and cut with just enough groove to keep it from getting boring, even at over 50 minutes in length. The key here (and pay attention, rookies) is SONGWRITING. Metal for the sake of metal. Good tunes. Fist banging. Not the shoe-gazing, depressive, repetitive black metal that is so in vogue of late. Nothing wrong with that stuff, but it is good to hear a black metal band that just wants to blow your face off and leave you saying, "Thank you sir, may I have another?"