I’ve been a fan of Impaled Nazarene for many years now and while I do enjoy most everything they’ve released I’m generally more of a fan of the material wrote from 1998 onwards, an opinion, which seems to be in the minority. There early stuff is a bit too grindy, chaotic and generally not as addictive as the more melodic stuff they’ve created since 1998’s, ‘Rapture.’ All the same, one agreeable trait about Imp Naz’s music since day one is that it has been always very angry and the tongue-in-cheek humor has never failed to bring a smile to my face either.
‘Nihil’ was released in 2000 and on this release the band was joined by guitarist Alexi Laiho of the not yet ridiculously popular Children of Bodom. Laiho’s lead work really shines through on this release and thankfully the guitars still sound like Impaled Nazarene and not the overly fruity style Laiho is more known for.
I’ve always admired the way this band has been able to blend various styles of music together while always sounding pissed off and on Nihil they do it quite flawlessly. Songs like ‘Nothing Sacred’ or ‘Zero Tolerance’ have an old school thrash tone to them, while ‘How the Laughter Died’ has a very depressive main riff and ‘Nihil’ is just pure black metal all the way. It’s also common to find death metal and punk influences in these guys music too.
After Nihil, Laiho was eventually kicked out of the band because he was too busy touring and becoming a rock star with Children of Bodom, but this led to Teemu ‘Somnium’ Raimoranta joining the band and he certainly was a great guitarist too. In recent times Nihil has also been banned in Germany entirely because of the artwork and the explicit lyrics. In the end, this album remains one of my favs from these guys and if you’ve never heard it I suggest checking it out.
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