''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 tr ...
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
Yamata no Orochi (ヤマタノオロチ, also written as 八岐大蛇, 八俣遠呂智 or 八俣遠呂知) is a legendary eight-headed and eight-tailed serpent that appears in Japanese mythology. Both the ''Kojiki'' and ''Nihon Shoki'' record the ...
, despite it not being a theme album.
In the same interview Luttinen also said that lyrics handle themes like
cancel culture
Cancel culture is a cultural phenomenon in which an individual thought to have acted or spoken in an unacceptable manner is ostracized, boycotted, shunned or fired, often aided by social media. This shunning may extend to social or professio ...
,
virtue signalling
Virtue signalling is the act of expressing opinions or stances that align with popular moral values, often through social media, with the intent of demonstrating one's good character. The term ''virtue signalling'' is frequently used pejorativel ...
,
flatearthers,
anti-vaxxers
Anti-vaccine activism, which collectively constitutes the "anti-vax" movement, is a set of organized activities expressing opposition to vaccination, and these collaborating networks have often sought to increase vaccine hesitancy by dissem ...
and
alternative medicine
Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...
, among others.
Composition and recording
After a few years of gigs following the previous album
Vigorous and Liberating Death, 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 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